Contact: Alagaesia The rewrite
by I am the Bird of Hermes
Summary: When a ship known as the UNSC Spirit of Fire makes contact with a planet known as Alagaesia a chain reaction is set off that will never be forgotton. Alliances will be made, friendships will be tested, the past is forgotton and the future only sees war coming.
1. Uprising

**READ THIS FIRST **

Aright as promised here is my rewrite version of Contact: Alagaesia. Also my thanks to The Lobsters Claw for taking the time to inbox me his advice on how I should continue my story. He encouraged my OCs and gave me advice on what the UNSC should have and when the story should take place. This first chapter took longer than I originally thought and the next chapter probably won't be up until next month because of my HSC. Encouragement helps me write faster so if you are looking forward to the next chapter please leave your input after reading.

Again if have anyone has an idea for my story and want it in the story review or inbox me. Even if I don't use your idea I'll mention you and your idea in the next so also I don't own Inheritance Cycle or Halo (I can still wish I did).

**Side Note: **I'm thinking of doing a Harry Potter/Sonic the hedgehog crossover where it is the summer after Voldemort's return in the Goblet of Fire. Harry is sick with Dumbledore's insistence he stay inside and he trains himself to become an Animagus using books Sirius sent him. When he is attacked by the Denmentors Harry transforms into his animal form; a blue, hyperactive Hedgehog. Have any advice or ideas for me inbox and I might use them. If I don't use them in my story I'll still make sure you're mentioned.

This story is set twenty eight years after Halo Wars and a week before the Battle of the Burning Plains. Rated T for graphic violence, some swearing and adult themes (maybe).

XXXXX

"Captain wake up. Something has happened."

Captain James Cutter heard the soft female voice as he began to start regaining feeling in his limbs. Following procedure, he tested his limbs by slowly wiggling them to make sure that they were properly working. He slowly attempted a single step and almost instantly regretted it as he fell from his cyro pod into the cold metal floor.

"Captain would you please move faster?"

Gritting his teeth Cutter tried again by using the empty doorframe of his open pod as leverage. Pushing his hands against the metal surface he managed to stay standing long enough to grab his clothes from a nearby locker and he began to dress in his navy dress uniform. Finally he finished up by attaching his M6 sidearm holster to his belt followed by the pistol itself. Cutter then noticed several other crew members had been thawed out of their pods and had just finished dressing a few seconds ahead of Cutter. Amongst them were four members of his bridge crew, Orbital Drop Shock Trooper Sergeant Alex Sanders and Professor Ellen Anders from the Office of Naval Intelligence.

"Professor," he acknowledged her presence with a small nod.

Anders gave a small smile in return. She finished tying her shiny, black hair in a small ponytail using a simple red rubber band. "Captain, I assume that there's a good reason that I've been woken." She wore a red sleeveless vest, cargo pants and combat boots that didn't seem to go with the rest of the professor's outfit.

"I'll make sure you're informed as soon as I know myself." Cutter promised, knowing that keeping Anders in the dark wasn't a wise idea. The woman was stubborn, determined, intelligent and never took no for an answer.

"Well then I'll be in my lab if anyone needs me." The woman informed Cutter before sweeping past him without a second glance. Cutter winced. The professor's voice held a steel edge that hadn't been there before and she had been unsocial enough before everyone went into their pods. He sighed, rubbing his aging face with his hands as he did so. Forge's death seemed to have hit her hard. It had struck a nerve in nearly everyone else as well, including Cutter himself.

Serina then decided that she was tired of waiting and made sure her displeasure in waiting was well known to the captain.

"Captain I need you on the bridge now so pick up the pace." Serena's voice which was producing from the room's wall mounted speakers were practically coated in dry sarcasm that Cutter swore was going to be the end of him. As she said this, more pods began to open, freezing white steam producing from the corners as the mounted doors retracted into the roof of the ceiling.

"Sir do you need us on station as well?" asked a young ensign who served on the bridge. Lowe was a young man in his twenties with a buzz style haircut with a pointed nose and thick eyebrows.

Cutter considered his question for a while before coming to a decision. "No thank you Son. You and everyone else get something to eat first. I'll need you on the bridge in a half hour."

Lowe smiled and nodded. "Of course sir."

XXXXX

Five minutes later.

"Serina how long has it been?" asked Cutter as the metal automatic sliding door opened to grant him access to the observation deck of the Spirit of Fire's command bridge. Electricity hummed as the various consoles and work stations positioned were temporarily consumed in light as Serina booted them back up. A second later the blue and white lights hanging overhead from the ceiling exploded into life as Serina started them all back up in under a second.

''In answer to your question Captain, the date is October the second 2559. You have been in status for twenty-eight years, four months and five days.'' Serina replied, shrugging her shoulders.

Cutter gasped in shock at Serina. ''Twenty-eight years'' he said aloud, hoping it was less and he had misunderstood her.

''I did say twenty-eight years captain. Would you like me to say it again,'' asked Serina, her voice dripping in sarcasm.

Cutter sat down at his station and typed his password into the touch keyboard. After he was granted access, he brought up the current condition of his vessel. A 3D dimensional diagram of the Spirit of Fire appeared on the display suspended half a foot above the table. Cutter spent the next several minutes flicking through important topics that required his attention such as weapons, damage and supplies. As soon as Cutter was finished he stood and strolled over to the observation window.

"Why did you wake me?" asked Cutter, staring out at the vast emptiness of space. He frowned. The fact they had been had not been found after being lost for twenty eight years was very concerning to him. He knew before going into cyro that it would be a while before they were found but still he wasn't expecting to still be lost twenty eight years later. All kinds of questions were screaming at his head. Was the war over? If so then who won? Was his wife Mary still alive? Did the Covenant destroy humanity? If so then it was possible that this ship along with himself, Serina and the crew where all that remained of humanity?

A 3D hologram of Serina's avatar appeared on top of the bridges main console. Her appearance was simple; a young tall slender human female with long black hair. Her clothing consisted of a pair of jeans, a white shirt and a research lab coat. All fourth generation 'smart' AIs such as Serina were allowed to chose their appearances, given the choice to choose their own clothing, gender, appearance, personality and even race (some AIs picked their appearances based on creatures that existed only in fiction such as gods of ancient myth).

"Well Captain I was watching the sensors when they picked up a planet. Upon taking a closer inspection I noticed how similar it is to Earth or perhaps even Reach. The planet's sun is at a safe distance away making sure that it doesn't get too cold or too hot in temperature. It has an atmosphere that is can be breathed by humans and a perfect environment to support life."

Serina removed the Spirit of Fire hologram and brought up a 3D hologram of the mysterious world for Cutter to examine. It was slightly smaller than Earth with features Cutter recognized as clouds, water and land. A single continent was the one thing Cutter noticed. It was HUGE. Cutter was no geologist but he guessed the single landmass was at least three times the size of Africa, taking up almost a fourth of the planet full ocean and many tiny islands surrounded the single continent from all sides. It reminded Cutter of a theory by scientists that the seven continents of Earth all used to be one before splitting apart.

Cutter then noticed a glowing source of light coming that seemed to be originating from . . . the planet's core? It was beaming white with a twinge of orange outlining it. It continued until it reached the planet's surface, diminishing in strength the closer it was to the surface. Cutter had never seen anything like it in his life. "What the hell is that?" he asked Serina, pointing at the planet's core.

Serina frowned. "I have honestly no idea Captain. It is some source of power that is originating from the core. The amount of it centered there is astonishing, although I am detecting much smaller amounts of it on the surface. Whatever it is its very similar to energy or even radiation. Also it's disturbing my sensors from getting a proper reading of it."

Cutter pondered over this information. "Serina is it dangerous?"

"I don't believe so Captain. I can detect wildlife down there so it is safe to assume that it interacts with the planet's fauna without any negative effects. I recommend navigating the Spirit of Fire towards it and sending a team to investigate. The ship needs repairs so if it is safe we could land and set up a base of operations to conduct repairs." Serina answered. Secretly she was curious in this strange anomaly. "Also I'm picking up a strange signal coming from the surface. I can't triangulate its position due to the interference but there is a ninety eight per cent chance it is from is the same as the one that was produced by that shield world."

Those last two words caused Cutter to shudder as he remembered the wonders and horrors that they had encountered on it. A hollow artificial world created by an ancient race of aliens that had possessed technology that put those of the UNSC and even the Covenant to shame. On the surface there was nothing but barren wastelands while in the centre many buildings and structures of alien design stood surrounded by a lush green environment. However a horrific new enemy had discovered; a contagious parasitic race whose only ambition was to consume all sentient life it could find that was known by the covenant as the 'parasite'.

Cutter quickly realized that he had been silent for almost a minute and snapped out of his thoughts.

"Serina plot a course there. Wake up all hands and make sure they're at their stations by the time we reach the planet's surface. Also prep a Pelican and make sure Red Team and the Professor are on-board. I want a full scouting of this area in preparation for it to be cleared for a firebase." Cutter highlighted a small plain sitting next to a gigantic river that ran through the mainland for several miles on the 3D representation of the mysterious world. "I also need a list of everything we have; supplies, resources, weapons, vehicles, fuel, manpower the works."

"Of course Captain."

XXXXX

Two hours later.

Pelican Alpha 917

The Pelican's metal wings whined in protest as the winds pushed against the UNSC aircraft. The dropships pilot skilfully navigated her craft through the thick clouds and began to descend towards the ground. At eight thousand feet above the ground the dropship 77-Troop Carrier, abbreviated D77-TC, or more commonly known as the Pelican, was an extremely versatile aircraft used by the United Nations Space Command. Normally this range of dropships only carried at best the pilot, co-pilot and ten passengers. Not in this case as Cutter had made sure that the expedition team on board was as large as possible without causing the Pelican to crash from sheer overweight.

Excluding the two pilots in the cockpit, there were a total of thirteen other people sitting or standing in the Pelican's passenger bay. On the team was Professor Ellen Anders herself and three other scientist personal who had their own respective doctorates that had gotten them a ticket on-board (as one marine had grumbled under his breath). Their equipment lay at their feet or on their laps with their hands holding them like their lives depended on it, except for Anders who was too lost in her own thoughts. Also coming with them were a six man UNSC marine fireteam whose purpose was to provide protection for the science team as well as to conduct some scouting besides.

Their uniforms involved grey fatigues, with shiny-brown armour covering most of the body. Almost all of the marines in the squad also wore matching protection helmets and polarized tactical glasses. As for weapons they all carried standard issue MA5B assault rifles in their arms with the weapon's tip pointed safely at the floor. In addition to their primary weapons each soldier carried their own M6 pistols as well as a pair of fragmentation and flash bang grenades.

However the team's main protection in this case weren't the presence of the squad of marines . . . . . it was the mere existence of three Spartan-II super soldiers. Callsign Red Team. Ander's knew with the Spartans on-board her team and herself would be more then safe from any possible threats.

The SPARTAN-II Program, originally known as the ORION Project Generation II, was part of the SPARTAN Program, an effort to produce elite soldiers through mechanical and biological augmentation. The SPARTAN-II program was the first in the series to meld advanced exoskeleton technology with the soldiers' superior physiques.

Just imagine giant seven foot tall soldiers dressed in green armour and helmets with golden visors that hides their faces with enough speed and reflexes to put any human athlete to shame ten times over and enough strength to lift over three tones, five if they pushed themselves.

It was rumoured had been other similar attempts to create super soldiers after the mixed results of the Spartan-IIs. Ideas flying around of improved ODST armour and drugs that made a man stronger, faster and more intelligent. However, they were all just rumours as best as Anders knew.

When it came to ONI, no one knew what to believe anyway.

Spartan Red team was a three man team; two male and one female. Jerome was the official leader of the team while Alice and Douglas brought up the rear with their ability to work together as a team. Each Spartan carried the same primary assault rifle as their marine counterparts, but this didn't bother the Spartans. There was a weapon's locker in the back of the Pelican containing special weapons that had been brought alone especially for Red Team.

"How much longer pilot?" questioned Jerome. Spartans were experts at keeping their emotions hidden for which he was grateful. He was honestly looking forward to making contact with solid ground after being stuck in cyro for almost three decades.

"Five minutes sir. "flight officer James Stanza answered. Two minutes later the dropship had dropped to roughly one hundred feet and was descending towards the large river that was mostly hidden from their bird's eye view due to the mass of tree positioned on the East side except for the large hill/plain that Cutter wanted to use to set up a firebase. Stanza pulled a leaver and the Pelican's back door opened, depressurising the aircraft and allowing the passengers to get their first view of this new world.

It certainly was amazing. The trained soldiers onboard guessed from the positioning of the sun that it was around five PM. On the horizon, the bright orange sun was close to dropping down and casting the world into darkness. For now a powerful glow of brilliant light from the sun's rays covered every inch of exposed area to its glow. The passengers (even Anders) allowed themselves a moment to enjoy the warmth they could feel on their skin. Red Team simply could not feel it due to their armour and allowed themselves to enjoy the view. The trees remained the viewers of the massive pine forests that existed on Earth in America and Canada, ranging in height from forty to sixty feet. They were well spread out from each other, allowing each tree at least five meters of space. Overall they if they didn't know otherwise they would have sworn they were on some other human world.

Anders had been checking her sidearm when mutterings of "what the hell?" could be heard coming from the cockpit. "Sir you might want to take a look at this. I'm picking up heaps of activity on the radar coming around three klicks ahead of us. Around five dozen contacts."

Red Team's behaviour quickly changed. They stood up straighter and they began to check their weapons. Jerome stood from his seat and made his way into the cockpit. Anders followed on his heels.

"Pilot can you get closer?" demanded Anders. If something was going on she wanted to know.

Stanza however knew that the Spartan was in command of the mission so he ignored the professor's question. "Have they detected us?" asked Jerome. Unlike Ander's demanding attitude, he kept his voice calm and void of emotion.

"I'm not sure sir. They haven't made any move to suggest otherwise. They seem to be establishing a perimeter. Want to take a closer look?"

"Negative. Deviate from the flight plan and switch to thermal." Jerome ordered. He had to know if these contacts posed a threat to them. Besides guarding the science team, Red Team had come to make sure that the area was deprived of any intelligent species. If so Cutter had ordered them to follow first contact protocol and only to resort to violence if anything they came across proved to be hostile (not that it had helped them with the Covenant).

The co-pilot Welland followed out the order and flicked a series of switches on the dashboard. The small screen that Jerome and Anders were standing beside flickered to life, displaying the thermal vision of the ground below. As Stanza had claimed, the Spartan counted five dozen life forms. Eight of them were four legged with large bodies and hooves. Perhaps some kind of horse? The remaining fifty two red dots were two legged with two arms as well. Most of them were setting up tents while ten were guarding key positions in pairs on the outskirts of the camp with what seemed to be primitive bladed weapons which appeared as shadows. Their size and posture was so similar to humans that Jerome would have sworn he was looking at humans.

Anders seemed to have come to the same conclusion and was staring at the red dots in wonder. "They look so much like . . . . . people."

Jerome didn't respond and relayed new orders. "Fly us around and set this bird down two klicks away. Make sure they don't spot us. Send these images to the Captain."

As the two pilots navigated the Pelican away Jerome tapped into his COM system and established a link with Cutter on-board the Spirit of Fire. Cutter's voice soon filled the Spartan's ears. "Spartan report."

"Captain we've detected over fifty contacts on the ground right on top of where you wanted that firebase. There's some kind of activity going on. Images should be coming to you now."

The line went silent. Jerome had a mental image in his mind of Cutter going over the images on the bridge, rubbing his face as he processed them and deciding what to make of them.

Cutter finally came to a decision after thirty seconds and relayed his orders to the Spartan. "Soldier have you established contact yet?"

"No sir."

"Then do it. Make sure Anders and her team are well protected. Support will be on station if you need it. Cutter out."

"Well this should be very interesting. Maybe they these aliens won't try to kill us for once."

Jerome ignored Serina' remark and returned to the passenger compartment and relayed the new orders to everyone else. A minute later, the Pelican came down and made contact with solid ground. The second metal met grass, Red Team jumped from down and ran to secure the area followed closely behind by the marines The nine soldiers quickly secured the area, their MA5B rifles covering every inch of space.

Anders and the other members of her team soon followed carrying their equipment. After the area was finished, Douglas radioed the pilots who shut down the dropship's engines. The rotors whined as they began shut down, stopping the powerful winds that were buffering against the grass.

Stanza and Welland disembarked from their aircraft began doing regular check-up of their Pelican while the marines checked their weapons and ammo. Alice went back inside and grabbed their heavy weapons and returned with them for her fellow Spartans. Alice gave Jerome the Weapon/Anti-vehicle model 6 Grindell/Galilean nonlinear rifle commonly known as the Spartan Laser. Alice then handed Douglas a M41 SSR MAV/AW rocket launcher who accepted with without a pause. Slung over Alice's shoulder was an AIE-486H heavy machine gun, the massive turret was an instrument of death in itself.

"Is everyone ready?" asked Jerome, shouldering his rifle in favour for his Spartan Laser. The leading marine sergeant Miller spoke on behalf of his team "we're already to go Spartan." Anders and her team replied the same, eager to meet a new species. His fellow Spartans just nodded.

On Miller's orders two of his soldiers stayed behind to guard the dropship. The man and woman accepted his orders without protest. Jerome knew that leaving a security element in place just in case of possible hostiles was something that needed to be done so he had had Miller leave a third of his team behind.

XXXXX

Twenty minutes later.

The group comprised of the three Spartans, four marines and four scientists slowly made their way through the pine trees. By now the sun had almost done down, leaving the team covered in an almost pitch colour of darkness. The seven soldiers had activated built in flashlights on their rifles to help navigate their way. Not that Red Team needed it as their augmentations ensured their eyes could see in the dark as well as any night predator. However the marines and the science team were almost blind in the dark so Jerome had not denied the use of flashlights.

The scientists despite their protests weren't allowed stop and examine any of the local wildlife. So far they had encountered several reindeer, common birds and a curious black bear that had followed them for a minute before leaving after apparently losing interest in the group. This fact had startled them and Anders had taken several photos to examine later once they got back to the Spirit of Fire. The chance of finding wildlife that were so similar to those back on Earth on a different planet was so low it wasn't considered possible.

Jerome, Alice and Douglas weren't very interested in this despite their early surprise at this fact. Their only interest was ensuring that the mission was carried out and that their VIPs were protected. The marines simply used their training to ignore the animals even though they were also interested in them.

As the group began climbing uphill Alice's enhanced hearing suddenly picked up a noise that she almost missed. She signalled 'stop' to the rest of the group who froze.

Alice strained to listen and then picked it up again; the sound of voices. Roughly one hundred feet ahead. Alice pointed ahead and Jerome understood. Red Team and Miller's squad extinguished their lights, leaving them in darkness.

Anders and her team understood and shut up. Using hand signals Jerome signalled to Douglas and two of Miller's men who stepped forward.

"The three of you stay here with Professor Anders and her team. Alice. Miller and you," pointing to the remaining marine, a young women under thirty. "Come with me. Hand gestures only."

Ander looked furious at being left behind but gave in when Douglas glared at her. It was hard to win an argument against a Spartan with a gun. The other researchers frowned but relented without Ander's attitude.

Leaving the seven group members at the bottom, the four soldiers advanced onwards. Almost at once Jerome could see the distant glare of at least three camp fires. The smell of cooked meat reached him. They soon reached the top of the hill and got their first look at these creatures. They got the shock of their lives.

They were human!

XXXXX

Jerome, Alice and the two marines lay on their stomachs as they observed this discovery.

Like the radar had said, there were fifty two humans and eight horses that had been tied to several nearby trees. Jerome counted nine red tents that had been set up with wooden stakes and nails that had been forced into the earth. Except for one man with a trimmed white beard dressed in a leather vest and a white robe, all of them wore armour. Each armoured man was roughly between the age of eighteen and forty, wearing dark medieval style armour that clashed horribly with their bright red cloaks. They also possessed metal helmets that left their faces exposed along with leather boots and belts that were coloured a dark brown.

Then there were their weapons to address . . . .

All of the men the group had dubbed soldiers owned a medium sized double edge sword each as well as a short dagger and a oval shaped black leather shield. There were also eight men with bows and another ten who possessed black two metre long spears. The old man didn't possess any visible weapons on him but Jerome knew that didn't necessarily mean he wasn't a threat. The robed man was currently standing at the centre of the camp with his eyes closed, muttering under his breath. The medieval soldiers were closed to him seemed to regard him with something close to dislike or maybe even fear.

Jerome's training kicked in and he observed the perimeter. Still there were ten soldiers organised in pairs guarding several metres ahead of the edge of the camp. Most were showing signs of boredom or weariness or both. Jerome snorted at this. Their sentries were just plain sloppy. . .

"Vardan spies. Kill them!"

The Spartan swung his rifle towards the source of the cry when suddenly a blinding orb of pure, white light appeared out thin air less five meters above them. The four soldiers all jumped to their feet and aimed their rifles at the source, firing. Rounds flew towards the orb and to the group's amazement they continued through without any effect.

The soldiers saw them and charged towards them, banishing swords and shields.

The female marine saw the approaching men and hesitated. The fact that these were people like her stopped her from aiming at them. She tried to defuse the situation by raising her hands and shouting. The robed man's eyes zoomed onto her and his eyes narrowed.

"Stop! We don't mean any harm! Stop! Please we don't want to hurt any of . . . argh!"

A ruby light sprung from the old man's raised hand. The bolt of energy raced over the head of the soldiers and struck the marine in the stomach. It punched a hole through her chest, splattering the ground with her blood. The woman's knees buckled and she fell to the ground, dead.

The moment the bolt appeared and killed the marine, Jerome opened fire with his MA5B. A three round burst struck one of the medieval soldiers head and his head blew apart. Following the Spartan's lead, Miller also opened fire with his rifle which was quickly drowned over the roar of Alice's heavy machine gun. Four more of their new enemies were simply shredded to pieces, bullets piercing their armour and flesh like a knife though a cloth.

"Contact!" shouted Jerome. "Miller fall back and call for support."

Trusting Miller to follow his instructions, Jerome held his ground and continued to fire short concentrated into the enemy force. Despite their numbers, the soldiers found themselves at the receiving end of death as the two Spartan's firepower tore a hole in their ranks as they struggled uphill to reach their opponents. Some soldiers make the mistake of trying to block these strange loud weapons on their shields, only for the swarm of bullets to rip many holes through them after their shields were torn to useless pieces of wood and leather.

After twenty seconds into the engagement the first of the soldiers reached the two Spartans, only for the leader scream as one of the green giants reached out, grabbed his head and twisted it backwards. One soldier rushed past towards the opponent with the larger weapon and swung his sword at its head.

However luck wasn't on the man's side as seemly at the last possible second, the giant twisted, ducking under the blow with amazing speed so graceful it looked practiced. Not letting up, the giant soldier dropped its weapon, disarmed the soldier with a casual blow from a fist and stabbed the soldier through his gut with his own weapon.

Alice grabbed the still alive soldier and shoved him backwards into his fellows, knocking them back. Three soldiers made their way past their comrades and challenged the Spartan with spears. Alice stepped backwards to give herself the space she needed and drew and her titanium combat knife. She intercepted the first spear and sliced it in half, quickly followed by the man's head. Then in the space of several seconds she got in close to the other two before they had time to react and slit their throats.

Alice turned to face another group of soldiers who were eyeing her nervously. Alice didn't hesitate for a second and attacked.

Jerome finished off the magazine in his MA5B and dropped his rifle as five soldiers approached him. The Spartan slew them all using his fists, feet, knees and elbows in less than ten seconds. Just as he punched a hole through the last man's chest, Jerome felt his reflexes scream at him to move a second before a ruby red beam smashed into his armoured chest and forced him back several steps The whine inside his helmet informed the Spartan that his the strength of his shields had dangerously low. His ears bearly registered a man speaking in a language he couldn't understand.

Jerome stayed calm despite this and spotted the robed man standing before him looking at him with a mixture of hatred and curiosity. The Spartan gasped he felt something not unlike a needle stab into his mind. He felt like his head was being split in two! He rose to his feet, encountering resistance like his entire body was submerged i dried mud. His suit suddenly seemed to weight a lot more than beforehand.

Eight uninjured soldiers approached him, running as fast as their legs could carry them. Jerome cursed. He couldn't be captured. He had to break free. He began to struggle even more and he observed the old man as a vein appeared on his forehead and his facial expression was twisted into a sinister snarl.

The old man's head exploded in a shower of gore and bone.

Jerome attempted to move one more time and discovered to his surprise that he could. The Spartan jumped to his feet while his hand reached for his belt as the eight soldiers rushed him at once.

His hand grabbed a grenade.

Jerome pulled the pin, dodged several swords and shoved his hand down the nearest soldier's throat.

His hand withdrew minus the grenade.

He spun on his heel and kicked the jawless soldier into his fellows. Jerome backpedalled as he tried to gain as much distance as possible. . .

The screaming man's upper chest simply exploded, the blast tearing the man apart in a disgusting shower of gore. Several nearby soldiers also suffered the effects, their bodies briefly dancing as the grenade's shrapnel tore into their flesh.

And all was silent.

XXXXX

"By the gods what manner of creatures are these?"

Concealed behind several trees was a man. He was dressed in a leather vest and wore a set of chainmail over it. Covering his lower regions were a pair of leather boots and battered pants. He carried a bag over his shoulder and a blade in his hand. His bread was overgrown and shaggy.

The man observed as the more of the strangers bearing those weapons appeared. One was as tall as the other two while the rest were human although their clothing was strange and didn't look like anything he had seen before. Did that mean the green giants were human as well? If not then could they be elves? It would explain their amazing strength and reflexes.

But still that didn't make up for their weapons that coughed fire and slew the group of soldiers plus one of the Empire's spellcasters less time than it took to get dressed in a suit of armour. How they worked was a mystery to the man. Should he reveal himself? They are obviously enemies of the empire now. The man's fist tightened in anger as he remembered the magician ruthlessly strike down the woman even though she had tried to resolve it peacefully. They were unwilling to commit violence unless they had to but were capable of carrying it out with disturbing ease that merited many years of practice.

No he would report this to his superiors. They needed to know that a new fraction existed that were clearly not allies with the empire. They could be convinced to become allies if he . . . .

A loud noise interrupted his thoughts. The man could feel wind pushing against the back of his neck, sending a chill down his spine. He couldn't really describe the sound, like the air itself had awoken and started to scream. The wind his hiding spot and for a second he feared he was exposed. The strangers were gathering all in a single area. Their facial expressions were calm and collected. They were expecting this.

He looked up . . .

His jaw dropped.

Hovering above him was a large metal creature that could only be described as a dragon with four wings. Its outside was a dark green while its belly was a dull grey. The man tried to count its size and realised that it fell short of blue dragon Saphira. It landed on the ground and the strangers clambered aboard. 'Not a dragon', the man realised. 'A ship. A ship made out of metal that flies on air! How was that possible?'

As the last boarded their ship, the man spotted two dead bodies in the possession of the strangers. One was the robed magic user while he recognised the other as the woman he had killed with magic. The man was treated like a sack of rubbish (dragged in and left lying in the corner in a heap) while the woman was treated with the upmost respect, carefully she was set down on the floor of the ship. One man in matching set of armour leaned over and closed her eyes before removing a small chain and tag from around her neck.

The metal door closed, preventing the lone man from gaining another look at them. The ship whined as it took to the sky again and disappeared amongst the stars. The man cursed and ran from his hiding place and ran in the direction that the ship had gone before coming to a halt as he realised that he would never catch up.

The man was not sure how long he stood there and simply stared up. By the time he came to his senses it was still now fully night time and it was only because of the soldier's camp fires that he could still see. He quickly ran over one of the horses and calmed it down by stroking its face. He mounted the saddle and quickly made off back towards the Varden. He briefly felt bad for stealing but quickly crushed the feeling.

Besides, it wasn't like the soldiers needed their horses anymore.

XXXXX

Stay tuned for chapter two of this story. Remember reviews and comments help me write faster and to give your advice for my Sonic/Harry Potter story. If you are not interested in this then pass the message alone to another Fanfic writer who might like to give their advice. Again I'll make sure you're mentioned even if I don't use your idea.

I Am The Bird Of Hermes signing off.


	2. Counterattack

**READ THIS FIRST **

Aright here is the second chapter of the rewrite version of Contact: Alagaesia. This chapter took shorter amount of time than I originally thought thanks to the reviews (hint, hint). Encouragement helps me write faster so if you are looking forward to the next chapter please leave your input after reading.

**PS: **Again if have anyone has an idea for my story and want it in the story review or inbox me. Also what do you guys feel about my focus on particular characters? Even if I don't use your idea I'll mention you and your idea in the next chapter. Alright so also I don't own Inheritance Cycle or Halo.

XXXXX

UNSC Spirit of Fire, altitude: three thousand feet

"What I want to know is what the hell that is?"

In one of the Spirit of Fire's spare conference rooms several people sat down at the round metal table staring at the recordings taken from Red Team's helmets during the exploration. Captain Cutter sat in his seat, rubbing his forehead. Besides was a plastic cup of coffee that had long since gone cold.

On his left was the Spirit of Fire's first officer Lieutenant Jamie Smith, a pale balding man in his mid forties with several scars decorating his neck. His uniform was almost a perfect match to the Captain's although his lower rank was clearly visible on his clothing.

On Cutter's right side was Professor Anders. The woman had just recently returned from performing an autopsy on the two bodies that had been brought back onboard. She wore the same clothes she had worn during the trip to the surface although in addition to her clothing she wore a white lab coat that reached just short of her knees.

Across the table was the Orbital Drop Shock Trooper Captain Alex Sanders. The man was dressed in black military fatigues that matched his dark buzz haircut, the ODST symbol; a flaming skull was stitched onto his clothing's upper right shoulder. He was armed with an M6 pistol and a scowl that showed his current mood.

Sitting next to Sanders was Sergeant Nigel Miller. The man had removed his helmet but the man still hadn't changed out of his amour or weapons. He looked tired and it showed on his face, although he didn't let it affect his report. His hair was longer then Sander's and was a lighter shade, small stubble clung to his chin.

Sitting with his legs crossed was Doctor Leonard Reznov, one of the doctors who had gone on the trip. He was dressed in a simple pair of shirt and pants with a white lab coat similar to the professor's.

Standing right up against the wall providing security with his eyes carefully observing the meeting was the Spartan Jerome. The Spartan stood completely still, power radiating off of his body almost like a statue representing some famous hero of ancient Greece. Following orders from Cutter, the Spartan had deprived himself of most of his weapons except for his M6 sidearm. Even without it, Jerome could have killed everybody in the room in a matter of seconds if he had wanted to.

Last but not least was the Artificial Intelligence Serina. A hologram of the AI stood upon the table, going through the reports from the mission as well as viewing multiple video recordings depicting the rather violent first contact all at the same time. Currently, everyone's attention was on one specific video feed, Serina had cut it down to the final five minutes before the camera had been paused. For the fourth time everyone watched as the old man raised his hand and shouted something that clearly wasn't English. The part that got everyone's attention was when a blood red of light shaped like a bolt of lightning escaped from the man's palm and struck the since decreased marine's armour at over ninety kilometres an hour.

Everyone paid close attention as the violent bolt of energy burnt a hole through the woman's armour before striking the cloth and flesh underneath. The bolt continued through, burning any meat, organs or bones that were in its way. The red energy exited from the woman's back half a second after entry, followed close behind by a shower of the woman's blood. Most of the group silently growled at this, their eyes showing a mixture of disgust and hatred as they watched the remainder of the video. Although upsetting, it wasn't the woman's death that got everyone stirring . . . it was the similarity the red bolt had to the Covenant's plasma weaponry. Soon, the feed ended and Serina rewound it to the frame where the bolt was producing from the man's palm.

It was Smith who had asked the question, staring at the image of the old man with an expression that was perhaps wonder or even fear.

Cutter sighed, rubbing his face. "Serina who was she?"

Serina brought up a 3D image of the marines file. "Lance Corporal Isabelle Jane Williams-Fletcher. Born September eighteenth 2494 on Arcadia, moved to Harvest when she was twenty one. Joined the Harvest Militia in 2519, married two years later to a Wallace Fletcher and had a child Ryan Fletcher. Her husband and son died when the Covenant invaded Harvest and she was one of the few survivors after they were beaten back. Volunteered for the Marine Corps and after she graduated, returned to Harvest assigned to the UNSC Spirit of Fire. Listed as Killed in Action during first contact with an unknown splinter society of humans on October third 2559."

Cutter cursed. This woman was far from the first fatality suffered under his command. His mood was further dampened by the fact that she was not going to be the last at this rate.

Cutter turned his chair to face Anders. "Professor what do you have for us?"

Ellen cleared her throat and began to speak. "I finished the autopsy of the subject and he is surely human. His bones show sign of heavy wear but that can be expected for someone of his age. Everything about him is normal but this."

Anders typed into her data pad and brought up an image of the man's skeleton, minus the head. "His nerves show advanced activity that is inconsistent for someone of his age. Also I'm my scan detected small amounts of that unknown energy that was detected near the planet's core in his system in amounts so small it's barely noticeable. It's in his nerves, blood and his nervous system, but it doesn't seem to be dangerous to him in any way like this body is accepting it like our bodies' accept a cloned liver or heart."

"So this guy has this weird shit in him so was that why he could create red beams and throw them around?" asked Sanders. The ODST was concerned. If these 'humans' could use an unknown weapon against them he wanted to know as much as possible in case he found himself on the receiving end of this ability.

"I don't like rushing to conclusions but I am going to say probably so in this case." Ellen looked irritated at being interrupted, glaring at the ODST as she continued. "This energy is very unstable according to the data. How he was able to channel it through his body is beyond my understanding. I would have had a better understanding if his remains were less . . . . damaged."

More images of the baffling feats pulled by the individual appeared. One image showed the massive sphere of light appear out of nowhere, blinding the UNSC personal. Another showed an image of Jerome convulsing on the ground while the old man stood several metres away, glaring at the Spartan like he thought his mere gaze would cause super soldier more pain.

"Professor with respect Alice saw her comrade lying on the ground and was feeling pain via an unknown method. If she had waited any longer Spartan Jerome could have suffered injuries we might have not been any to properly heal." It was Miller who had spoken out this time. Frankly he was disgusted that the scientists cared about this more then the death of one of his soldiers. He just wanted to keep as many UNSC personal alive as possible; marine or Spartan. "If you want to sacrifice more good soldiers like Isabelle and Forge so you can get what you want then you can go f . . ."

"Sergeant Miller stand down now!" barked Cutter, glaring at the marine who had jumped to his feet. Miller looked like he wanted to protest but in the end he sat back down, glaring at Ellen. Reznov looked angered at Miller's outburst against Ellen whom he was close friends with. The others watched this exchange with emotionless facial expressions while Sernia looked more amused than anything.

Ellen Anders glared with barely disguised rage at Miller. Her facial expression suggested she wanted to reach across the table and throttle him. Her eyes were blinking as her orbs started to water. Cutter inwardly winced as he realised that Miller had somehow struck a nerve. . . .

Ellen stood from her seat and stormed past the table. She completely ignored the Spartan stationed at the door and left the room without a single, backward glance, sniffling as she did so. Cutter looked at Miller with a face that said 'you and I are going to have a talk later' before returning his attention to the others. Miller frowned but said nothing.

"Moving onto other matters, Smith how is Alpha Base going along?" asked Cutter.

Smith cleared this throat. He brought up a live video feed that originated from the one of many security cameras active at the base. The feed was grainy, poor of quality and without video so pretty awful. The people watching could see M12 LRV Warthogs patrolling the perimeter, gunners pointing the barrel of their Anti-Aircraft Guns at the forest for any sign of hostile activity. Meanwhile dozens of marines set about setting up several ranks of concrete combat barriers that surrounded Alpha Base, backed up by several M808B Main Battle Tanks (also known as the Scorpion). Off to the side, technicians along with more men and women of the UNSC Marine Corps were setting up mounted Machine Guns and Base Turrets while digging trenches and constructing the third of a series of watchtowers built for UNSC snipers. More personal were given the job of sawing down and dragging away any stray trees that were considered to be too close to Alpha Base.

Overhead several AV-14 Attack VTOL Hornet and AV-22 Sparrowhawk aircraft flew over the base, conducting patrols of the airspace while scouting the countryside for possible enemy activity. Pelican Dropships flew down past their combat counterparts to deliver more personal, vehicles and supplies needed to maintain the running of Alpha Base.

"Well I got the word that the firebase itself was finished thirty minutes ago and the armoury has almost been completed. More personal and supplies are being shipped down as we speak. Lieutenant Sampson is giving us feedback every hour."

Cutter nodded in approval. He had ordered as many personal groundside as possible to ensure the presence of UNSC armed forces on the ground. The remainder of Red Team was also there, assisting in the construction of the compound. "It's good but can be improved. Sanders I want you and forty of your best soldiers on the next bird down. It'll be important we have someone out there doing recon on the area."

Sanders gave a small grin, his mood instantly changing. He had been very bored after being frozen out his pod and had been looking at an excuse to go down and have some excitement ever since. He could also guess that the rest of the ODSTs under his command had been feeling the same as well.

"Understood Sir. I'll get going now."

The solider stood and exited the door, already mentally deciding on whom to bring with him.

Cutter turned to Serina. "Serina can we spare a pair of Wombats?" The Captain was referring to the F99 Osprey Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle, known more commonly as the 'Wombat' or 'Drone.'

Serina smiled. "Actually Captain we have half a dozen down in the hanger bay so I can't see why not."

"I want one patrolling the airspace up north while I want the second one to go down south. I want them back by eighteen hundred hours. Make sure their fuelled and equipped with cameras to record what they see."

"Of course Captain, alerting hanger crew now." Serina created a clone of herself and sent it down to the hanger bay. "Expecting trouble Captain?"

"This area may be ours for now but I don't think the natives of this planet are going to like it when they find out." Cutter was no idiot. Sure these 'humans' actually used swords and spears, but he knew well that underestimating an opponent they currently knew next to nothing about them could easily prove to be fatal to them and THAT concerned him deeply. In the back of Cutter's mind, he knew there was still a chance they could open peaceful communications with the inhabitants of this world. Until then all crew would treat any non crew members as hostiles if attacked. He didn't want to make a mistake and add another few names to the list that had Isabelle Jane William-Fletcher's on it.

XXXXX

Ellen Anders marched into her room, slamming the door behind her with as much strength as she could muster. She then screamed, grabbing her bedside table and threw it to the floor before bashing her fists against the wall. Ellen then let herself fall into her bunk, eagerly accepting the comforting pillow that absorbed her tears. Ellen lay there, sobbing for at least ten minutes.

It wasn't fair. Why did John have to die? He had a wife and daughter waiting for him back home. Would they still be hoping for his safe return? Or will they have come to realise that John was mostly likely never coming back home? It made sense to her that she should have died instead; she had no close friends and most of her family were dead except for her father. Ellen felt guilt gathering in her belly like an unstable beast ready to explode in anger and rage, twisting her inner peace and bringing back the worst memories she had buried in the corners of her mind.

Ander knew perfectly well that she would have been the one to die if the Spirit of Fire hadn't done a Slipspace jump and followed the Covenant ship from Arcadia. But it had, not so they could destroy it. Not so they could follow it to find out where it originally came from; they had followed the ship because the Covenant were holding her onboard as a prisoner and John Forge had insisted to Cutter that they should pursue so they could rescue her!

And they have rescued her. John had personally been there, saving her life from a trio of those Parasite forms in the process. She had then safely returned to the ship while the Sergeant and Red Team remained on the ground. Not because Cutter had ordered him to but because she herself had asked him to! John and herself both did their jobs well; she was safe on the ship, safe because she was considered a 'valuable assert' while John was stuck on the ground with his men fighting for humanity while surrounded by thousands of Covenant, Parasite and Sentinels.

Eventually they had escaped. Everyone was back on board. However, over three hundred UNSC personal were listed as Killed In Action or Missing In Action, including Sergeant John Forge. All because they had followed her.

Her life in exchange for hundreds of others.

'_No thanks for rescuing me Sergeant?'_

Ellen winced as she realised something that had eluded her attention until now; she had never thanked John for saving her life.

Now the guilt was becoming overwhelming and Ellen was therefore very grateful when she finally fell asleep.

XXXXX

The Varden's camp, the outskirts of The Burning Plains

Hundreds of miles to the south-east Nasuada frowned, her lips pursing as she went over this information that she had received. Her nails tapped the handle of her chair as she pondered.

"Show me again" she ordered.

The sorcereress Trianna nodded and once again her presence touched the leader of the Varden's mind. Images ran through Nasuada's conscience again for the fourth time in the last ten minutes. Eventually Trianna withdrew, allowing Nasuada free to process over what she had seen.

These strange beings seemed to clearly not be members of the Empire. While that was somewhat good they were certainly not members of the Varden ether. She pondered over what she knew; they were few in number from what the scout had seen, but four of these beings were able to kill over fifty of the Empire's soldiers and one magician while suffering only one loss in the process. Most of them appeared to be human but she doubted the origans of the two armoured giants who had moved faster than an elf and were stronger then the tallest of urgals.

Their metal ship was also quite flabbergasting. It was clearly made from metal from that she could see and yet it floated on air! Nasuada wondered if they had used magic to lift the ship but that theory made no sense. She knew little of magic but she did know that the amount of energy required in order to keep something floating that heavy for an extended period of time was a feat that not even a dragon could maintain.

Speaking of dragons, Nasuada mentally compared Saphira to the ship. It was roughly two thirds the length the dragoness had been the last time the leader of the Varden had seen her in person which was quite a number of months ago (no doubt she had grown even more since then).

If it came to a fight she wasn't sure if Saphira would win and that scared her greatly. Saphira was a powerful dragon in her own right despite her young age. This metal craft on the other hand was covered from top to bottom in several thick layers that Nasuada assumed was some sort of armour plating. Several barrel shaped tubes on the ships 'nose' and under its 'wings' resembled the incredibly destructive weapons that their soldiers had possessed but on a much larger scale.

How those weapons of theirs worked was also a mystery to her. They made sharp, loud noises and produced flame from the end of the weapon's muzzle. They were capable of mowing down entire fields of men in a short amount of time Nasuada thought was not possible, even with magic or dragons. 'What do the others think I wonder?'

Standing before her were several other high ranking members of their army besides Trianna. Her most trusted adviser Jormunder stood by her side, his wrinkled face straightening as he frowned in concern. One of her lower officers Martland Redbeard stood nearby, a look in his eyes that suggested he was going over this from a military point of view. The Surdan King Orrin appeared seconds away from a panic attack, running his hands over the handle of the sword he had strapped to his belt. The Elvan ambassador Arya stood standing by herself in the corner, arms crossed over her chest. Her beautiful face was matched by emotions swirling in her deep green eyes. Watching all their reactions with an amused expression was the witch Angela, her companion Solembum the werecat snoozed peacefully on the floor.

Finally, (to Nasuada's greatest relief) Jormunder broke the tense silence with a statement of his own opinion. "Well whoever these people are they're well trained if they were able defeat almost sixty trained soldiers, one of them a magician. Since the Empire attacked and killed one of their soldiers it might be possible to convince them to join us as allies. If we fail . . . well I'd rather not think about it."

Orrin looked shocked to say the least. "You actually want these 'people' as allies? You saw that they did and you want to recruit them in our war." The king of Surda removed his crown/helmet and rubbed its shinning metal surface with a white piece of cloth.

"With respect Sire that is exactly why we should try to create an alliance with them. Do you want hundreds of your own soldier's on the receiving end of fifty of their weapons?" Martland snarled, glaring at Orrin. "In case you've forgotten there are over a hundred thousand soldiers less than four days away from our position while our strengh just number six thousand. We need as much help as possible, no matter where it comes from. We can't afford to not have these people as allies!"

Even Orrin could see that the man had a very valid point so he decided to shut up.

Nasuada frowned. Both men had a very good point. She now realised the wisdom in her decision to not invite the Council of Elders to this meeting. She thought for several moments before coming to a decision.

"We need to try and establish relations with them. Martland I want you to take two spellcasters and two hundred men. Scout the area and try to find them. Don't attack unless they attack first" Nasuada ordered. "Besides thanks to what we know I don't think fighting them would be a wise idea. I'll make sure you're provided with a map of this region."

Martland bowed to his superior before standing to his full height. "Of course Ma'am however my warriors and I will need horses if we are to find them before the Empire's troops march through this spot."

Nasuada nodded in understanding. "I'll make sure they're provided Captain. Just make sure to stay clear of the Empire's main army."

XXXXX

Three hours later

At the edge of the Varden's camp two hundred and three horses stood saddled and prepared for the journal. Two hundred and two men of various ages ranging from their early teens to late fifties were preparing themselves for their mission; checking weapons, making conversation with each other or saying goodbye to their loved ones. On Nasuada's request Trianna had reluctantly joined the group as well for several reasons. The main reason being was that Trianna was one of the strongest and experienced users of magic that the Varden possessed and therefore it made sense to being her along. The other magician was a man with a thin face named Carn.

Martland secretly detested magic but knew of its importance to the Varden. Before Eragon and Saphira had joined the Varden they had a total of thirteen magic users dedicated to their cause, not including the late Twins. Now with word of the new Dragon Rider spreading, more spellcasters who had no intentions of joining the Mad King had sought out the Varden. Now the numbers of Du Vrangr Gata had swelled to over twenty. Also with the addition of Surda's army having joined their main forces their numbers had reached almost fifty.

Despite their achievements, everyone knew that the Empire still had the strongest number of magicians whose numbers according to their spies was totalled at a little over three hundred, if not than even more

Martland was brought out of his thoughts when he noticed the female elf approaching their group. Ayra was dressed in tight, leather armour that showed her slim figure. Her sword and bow were both slung across the small of her back where she could easily reach if need be. As usual her face showed no emotion other than her trademark piercing stare.

Martland cursed, he knew perfectly well why she was here. He dismounted his horse and approached Arya.

As soon as they were within speaking distance Martland started. "The answer is no. Nasuada would have my head if she learned I allowed the ambassador of the elves to come prancing along on a mission. If you were to be captured or killed then your queen would surely break off our al-"

"There is no point in complaining. I already convinced Nasuada to allow me to come along as well. It took almost an hour of endless discussion and an oath in the Ancient Language that my queen wouldn't if it was to occur but in the end she relented."

Martland growled but relented under the elf's staring gaze.

"Why do you even want to come with us?"

The elf looked at him as if he was stupid. Martland decided he hated that expression.

"Your magicians aren't strong enough for this assignment nor do you or anyone else have any negotiating experience. I ferried Saphira's egg between the Varden and my people for decades therefore my position as ambassador makes me the most suitable candidate for the task. Also I am far stronger than any spellcasters you possess and therefore my assistance will help decide the outcome between life and death."

XXXXX

The Dragon Wing, the Jiet River

Roran Stronghammer sighed, his determination threatening to break under the enormous strain he was feeling. Also on the deck with him were over sixty other men of various ages, ether sailors or fellow inhabitants from Carvahall were carrying their tasks to the best of their ability; navigating their vessel through the water, securing the masts and double checking them to make sure they had done their job properly or taking shifts putting as much strength as they could into the oars without breaking their arms off. Roughly two hundred and fifty elderly, women and children were all stationed below deck to ensure they remained out of harm's way, looked after by twelve armed men.

Despite their efforts the three sloops were catching up fast. What was worse was that another two sloops had also appeared from amongst the fog and joined the pursuit of the Dragon Wing. The five sloops were slowly gaining, under a kilometre behind which at this rate was sure to be halved in the next few minutes. Roran had talked with Jeod and the ships captain Uthar over twenty minutes ago, discussing what their options were.

Turning to fight was a suggestion that even Roran met with disbelief. From Uthar's perspective, even if they conscripted the elderly and those in their early teens they would still have shy of ninety and most of their weapons were second hand at best (fishing knives, pointed pitchforks, wooden mallets, salvaged swords and several bows). Galbatorix's sloops on the other hand carried at least thirty to forty soldiers each not including the unspecified number of sailors whom Roran had no doubts would join the attack if they had to. Also the apparent presence of three magicians on the lead sloop was a cause of great concern.

Also while the Dragon Wing had eight ballistae siege engines on board, most of their stock had been used up and each sloop appeared to have at least four ballistae of their own, two on each side. Roran knew they if they got close enough they would fire their giant, flaming javelins into their hull without hesitation where the women and children were sheltering. Roran had refused to put them at risk with most of the villagers on deck agreeing with h-

"I see more sloops! Three of them directly ahead!"

The cry came from the crow's nest.

A screech blasted Roran's ears so loud he clamped his hands over his ears in a futile attempt to block out the noise. Around him other men were attempting to withstand the sound to the best of their ability. After what seemed like a minute to Roran the sound finally creased, sparing his aching ears.

He recognised that noise; the scream of a Lethrblaka.

Roran and most of the crew looked up and like gigantic bats outlined in light the two giant monstrous mounts floated thirty metres above the highest of the masts. Each Lethrblaka's flesh was covered in greyish, black thickly muscled skin that bludged with blood red veins. Their talons were sharp and deadly, the size of swords. Their featherless, bat like wings despite their tattered and ripped appearance allowed them to remain airborne like a pair of demons. Their beaks were tampered and pointed, making up for almost a fifth of their overall length. Each Lethrblaka was at least twenty five feet tall, putting the size of any other beast Roran had seen to shame. There was no sign of their riders the Ra'zac.

Roran gasped as he realised the situation they were in. The Empire had trapped them, leaving them with nowhere to go.

XXXXX

Twenty minutes prior, seven point five kilometres South-East

Pelican Alpha 917

Three Pelican Dropships flew at an altitude of roughly forty metres, flying through the air at seventy miles an hour. A hawk cawed in shock as the three metal ships overtook the bird of prey, sending it into an out of control downward spiral. Alpha 917 had the lead, followed closely behind by Bravo 723 and Alpha 475.

Captain Alex Sanders allowed himself to enjoy the view despite himself, even though his view was partially blocked by the fellow Orbital Drop Shock Trooper manning the AIE-486H heavy Machine Gun positioned at the end of the Pelican's ramp. Each dropship held ten ODST Special Forces, armed and equipped for lethal combat. Eight other ODSTs also occupied the Pelican's seats; the polarised visors of their jet black helmets hid their faces under a shadow of emptiness. Some like Sanders held onto the M7S Submachine Gun while others held onto the same MA5B assault rifles employed by the Marine Corps.

The Orbital Drop Shock Trooper was a military branch of the UNSC, reserved for the best of the best, way higher up the food chain than the average Marines. Like their name suggested, part of the job involved being inserted into hostile territory via drop pods abbreviated HEV or Human Entry Vehicle from UNSC ships positioned in orbit. The process was considered extremely dangerous as many things could go wrong such as a malfunctioning parachute opening too early or late would result in the pod crashing into the ground at over ninety miles an hour. Another lethal possibility was the chance of a scenario happening where the protective coating of the pod dissolving too quickly during re-entry, cooking the soldier inside alive like a lamb roast.

Many said that the ODSTs were crazy and suicidal for being willing to step inside one of those pods. Although this time HEV pods weren't required for this mission. Their armour was also different as well. The colouring was the same shade of pitch black as the helmets were. Their helmets, unlike the ones used by the Marines completely hid their faces from the outside world. Their armour was also thicker in the chest, shoulders and legs, providing them additional protection. It also fully covered the body, hiding their black fatigues from the outside world. Like with the fatigues, the ODST symbol; a jawless skull surrounded by a pillar of fire with the word printed underneath was painted on the right shoulder pad of each soldier.

The reason Cutter had assigned them out here was so they could carry out an exploration of the land on the opposite side of the river with their primary objective being hunting for enemy strongholds and settlements with orders not to engage, merely observe unless attacked first. Their secondary objective was to map as much land as possible so they could get a general understanding of the planet's geography, generally the type of mapping that the Wombat Drones weren't capable of carrying out due to their high only altitude flight.

The pilot in the cockpit shouted that they were clearing the last of the trees and were almost at the river. Sanders give him a thumps up, the military hand gesture commonly used amongst the UNSC. In his spare time after they had been briefed at Alpha Base Sanders had studied some photos and recordings taken of the river. He had concluded that the river had a width of roughly two hundred and seventy five metres for most of the way until it started to expand as it got closer to the ocean, the rough rapids pushing tones of freshwater out into the sea.

A white passed with no open discussion except for a few comments concerning the mission or the view that had not yet failed to impress the soldiers of the UNSC. Sanders had just been about to ask the pilot for an update when startled curses and shouts could be heard from the cockpit, followed by the sound of human screams and the horrific ear piercing screech coming from down below.

XXXXX

The Lethrblaka flew into the air with its prey clutched in its talons. The man struggled, screamed and stabbed at its feet with a dagger until the giant monster plunged its beak into the centre of the man's chest, silencing the noise. The creature quickly gained height, dodging several aflame javelins aimed at its flank, dropping its catch into the water. The Lethrblaka turned and began to fly around in preparation of conducting another pass on the Dragon Wing which would take a short amount of time, its mate following close behind whom had failed to seize any prey this turn.

Roran cursed the Ra'zac and their mounts using language he didn't even realise he knew. Around him it was a scene of pure chaos. Men were rushing everywhere, shouting orders or shouting for orders in earnest. Several bodies lay on the deck, arrows producing from their corpses. Overhead, the Dragon Wing's first sail was covered in fire, arrows flocking to and from their ship like a deadly cloud of locusts. The battle had been raging for a while and showed no signs of improving at all.

Roran winced as an arrow struck his wooden makeshift shield, adding to three more that were already implanted in the wood. Besides him stood Horst and several other villagers, all of whom carried shields which they were using to hold back the swarms of arrows as best as they could. Behind them the man manning the ballistae cried and fell as an arrow pierced his leg. Horst's son Baldor spotted the offending archer nearby and quickly returned the favour with his own bow. Three seconds later the soldier collapsed onto the wooden deck, an arrow shaft producing from his forehead.

Nearby two of the Empire's sloops were on fire, thanks to the men's actuate targeting of their sails. The crews of both ships had stopped attacking and withdrew to a safe distance where they were currently attempting to douse the flames as best as they could. A distance away another sloop lay mostly submerged underwater, its survivors drowning quickly due to their armour. The sloop had attempted to block the Dragon Wings path by directing itself into their path, therefore making a fatal mistake.

Uthar had seen this and before anyone could stop him had steered the Dragon Wing directly into the much smaller sloop, crushing it under the ship's weight. But now they were stuck; one of their sails was alight while the other two had so many holes in them they were catching next to no air in them at all. Not enough to gain enough speed to attempt another crash. While they had sunk one sloop and caused severe damage to two more the remaining five sloops had arranged themselves into a barrier, trapping the Dragon Wing between them and the shore, leaving the heavier ship partially stuck on the low tide.

Not long before, a group of forty soldiers and sailors from the two closest sloops had thrown grappling hooks over the Dragon Wing's side and attempted to storm the deck. Roran, the villagers and the sailors loyal to Uthar met them in the centre of the deck, weapons piercing flesh and broking bones. The fight had lasted for several minutes before the attackers had been driven off. Twelve of the enemy had escaped back to the sloops, leaving twenty eight bodies of their comrades lying bleeding on the floor (Roran had killed five of them himself). However the blood didn't all belong to the attackers; three of their own had died and over a dozen had suffered injuries which affected their overall usefulness.

Now it looked like the soldiers were preparing for another attack, this one much larger; men on four sloops were all arming themselves and gathering at the side of their sloops. The one carrying the three magicians however stayed back, watching the events carrying themselves out. Roran cursed. "Soldiers!" he shouted in warning.

"Prepare to repel boarders" ordered Uthar as grappling hooks flew towards them. They caught on and held tight, the soldiers climbing the Dragon Wing's hull, their hands moving as fast as they could as they moved up the ropes. Roran drew his hammer and leapt down to the lower deck. Dropping his shield he took his hammer in both hands and brought it down on the hook at his feet. The frail metal shattered under the repeated blows, the rope falling into the water followed by the four soldiers who had been using it to climb up. Several others on deck managed to remove two more hooks before the first soldiers appeared over the side and leapt aboard.

Roran snarled, rushing forward he shattered a soldier's chin with his hammer, sending the screaming man overboard. He then turned and attacked another soldier who managed to block the blow and counterattack. The villagers ran forward as well to engage the enemy, refusing to let them gain a foothold on their ship. They knew what would happen if the ship was lost; their families would be captured, killed or sold into slavery so they fought like rampaging lions. Besides him, Roran saw Jeod slip under an enemy sailor's hatchet and punctured the man's heart with his rapier. On his other side an attacking soldier overwhelmed his opponent and decapitated the sailor with his sword, spraying Roran with his blood.

The solider then turned his attention to Roran, swinging his sword. Roran knocked the blow aside with handle of his hammer, cursing yet again as he found himself fighting two opponents. Overhead a screech sounded out followed by the flapping of wings. The Lethrblaka were coming back for another pass.

Roran's blood turned cold.

XXXXX

"Jesus Christ Sir you're going to want to take a look at this!"

Sanders stood from his seat and made his way into the cockpit. He looked over Stanza's shoulder, took a look and blinked several times.

"What the hell?"

The three Pelicans floated ninety feet above the river, directly just a few metres behind the water's edge.

Since the pilots could only see what was happening, Sanders turned on his COM and had his team as well as the two other teams on the separate aircraft active the video monitor positioned besides the set of stairs that led to the aircraft's cockpit. Each screen showed a live feed from a camera set under the belly of their respective dropship, the main purpose for these were so that those sitting in the passenger bay could see what the Pelican was facing to make sure each team member knew what lay ahead.

Below in the river was what could be best described as a naval battle. One massive warship with white sails was trapped against the edge of the riverbank, being pelted by arrows and javelins. Dozens of soldiers whose dress and armour Sanders realised was similar to the ones worn by the large group who had attacked the UNSC last night were swarming aboard the large ship, trying to overwhelm the defenders through sheer numbers. Seven much smaller ships with red sails surrounded their larger counterpart although two of them were further off.

Sanders quickly realised that the people on the larger ship were dressed differently from the red cloaked soldiers. The defenders all wore very poor quality clothes; their shirts, pants and footwear were torn and dirty. The colours of their clothing ranged from white to brown and grey. Their weapons were very primitive; javelins, hooks, hammers and bows which Sanders had never seen before except for once when he was twelve and he had visited a museum with his grandfather.

Acting on instinct Sanders looked up and swore he was seeing things.

Like two gigantic bats outlined in light the two giant monstrous demons floated thirty metres above the highest of the masts. Each creatures flesh was covered in greyish, black thickly muscled skin that bludged with blood red veins. Their talons were sharp and deadly, the size of swords. Their featherless, bat like wings despite their tattered and ripped appearance allowed them to fly with amazing speed. Their beaks were tampered and pointed, making up for almost a fifth of their overall length.

"What the fuck are those things!?"

"I don't know but they're as ugly as shit!"

Everyone watched in horror as one of the demon like monsters swoop down towards the larger ship. It pulled up at the last second and flew away with a body clutched in its claws. Sanders saw the body's face and realised that it was a live person, a boy just shy of fifteen or sixteen. Everyone else, the pilots and the ODSTs saw the boy's young age and their eyes widened. The boy bravely fought back as best as he could, slashing at the thing's legs with a fishing hook, leaving shallow cuts in its skin.

To Sanders it felt like time had slowed down. He could hear people shouting in his ear, asking for permission to open fire. The ODST felt someone shaking him, trying to get his attention. However he knew that there was nothing they could do.

In still what seemed like slow motion, the beast reared its head back and lunged forward. It's gripped the boy's neck and twisted it. There was a single crack and the boy stopped moving.

Sanders and the other UNSC personal watch in horror as the winged demon gripped the body and tore it in half before dropping it to the ground where it hit the water with a splash.

. . .

. . .

. . .

Finally after several seconds of silence, Sanders found his voice again.

"Shoot it! Shoot it down!"

Stanza let it rip with the Pelican's M370 autocannon, followed a second later by the autocannons belonging to Bravo 723 and Alpha 475. The Lethrblaka screeched a challenge as it turned its attention to the three dropships. Somehow as if they could sense what was about to happen the villagers from Carvahall and the soldiers loyal to Galbatorix's Empire all looked up and saw what happened.

Dozens of uranium slugs swarmed towards the dark demon like a cloud of deadly hornets. It didn't even have time to realise it was about to die.

The bullets struck, smashing into the Lethrblaka's wards. The beast's invisible shields flared and cackled as they struggled to repel the attack. After deflecting the first burst, the second began and the wards failed, breaking apart like a wall of glass. The first slug penetrated its left wing at the joint and blew it off, showering the air with its blood. The Lethrblaka tired to scream but never had the time. More rounds followed the first, shredding the dark creature like a rodent in a blender. Its body jerked as gravity took hold, sending the decreased crashing down to the earth.

Sanders turned his attention to the other one but it flew up past their line of sight with amazing speed. The pilots tried to track it but it disappeared amongst the trees, the shadows of the forest hiding the dark demon from sight.

Stanza began to turn around to pursue the other one but Sanders grabbed his arm and forced him to turn back.

"Negative all units do not pursue it! Do not pursue!"

Sanders in the seconds he had been silent had reached several conclusions:

The soldiers here were the attackers and that made them a risk to himself, his men and the mission.

The two beasts were not attacking the red sloops so therefore they were of the same fraction.

These soldiers were the same as the ones who had murdered a UNSC marine so that meant they would most proberly be hostile.

The crew of the white ship were only fighting those who attacked them which meant they were only defending themselves.

Overall he had reached a decision.

"All units engage the red sailed ships. The white ship is to be protected at all costs." He turned to Stanza, pointing at the white ship. "Stanza take us in."

XXXXX

Roran had been one of the first to recover from the shock of seeing a trio of metal ships that floated on air and took advantage of the distraction by braining the remaining soldier, having killed the other already. Roran then rushed a sailor attacking Uthar and bashed the back of his head. Uthar kicked the man's feet and slit his throat. The Dragon Wing's captain nodded his thanks. "That's it lad, don't give up yet!"

Roran ignored his encouragement. "Uthar make sure no one attacks those things. They killed the Lethrblaka so they might destroy the sloops as well for us."

Uthar frowned, but nodded and rushed off to spread the word along. Roran was about to follow when something bashed into him, sending him tumbling to the deck. His head hit the wood and his vision blurred, pain racing through his skull like a river. Something wrapped around his throat, cutting off his air. Roran tired to strike back at his attacker but his blows weren't strong eno-

The grip suddenly vanished. Roran coughed and spat up blood, gagging on the smell. His vision started to sharpen and he saw a body wearing armour and a red cloak lying next to him, four fist sized bleeding holes producing from its chest.

Roran found his hammer and managed to stand back up before falling down onto one knee. What he saw left him utterly left shocked. Standing before him were ten beings covered in head to toe in black armour.

XXXXX

Sanders and his team of nine Orbital Drop Shock Troopers stood where they had jumped out the back of their Pelican. Normally such a jump would have fractured or broken any other person's legs. However their legs, toughened from endless training as well as their reinforced armour helped absorb the impact throughout the rest of their body so each trooper only received a temporary daze. Everyone had stopped what they were doing and where staring at them, deciding whether they were friend or foe.

Sanders decided to answer that for them.

He spotted a soldier strangling another man barley over the age of eighteen. The ODST raised his Submachine Gun and fired four shots. The soldier was blown off his feet, the shots tearing into his chest.

Taking this as a signal, the remaining members of his team opened fire. More soldiers dropped dead, their blood splattering the deck. The battle resumed the sound of metal clashing, men screaming and limbs tearing were drowned out by the sound of gunfire.

XXXXX

Pelican Bravo 723

Flight Officer Robert Brecht relayed Captain Sander's orders to his co-pilot, a tan skinned woman Lisa Robins. Robin nodded and activated the Pelican's Air to Surface Missiles. Brecht turned his bird to the left until its nose was facing its target; the two sloops that were still partially burning. A loud repeating beat producing from the pilot's headgear told him that it had detected a heat source.

Brecht smirked. In this ship with his finger on the trigger he was god. He got to decide who lived and who died. He pulled the trigger.

On each of the Pelican's wings, twin angry, coughing hisses produced from the sides as one, two, three and finally four missiles raced downwards towards the two ships, two missiles each. Like birds trying to outrace each other, the missiles kept overtaking each other, almost as if they wanted to reach their target and unleash death before the others did.

One soldier who had been handing a bucket of water to fellow crew member had heard a loud noise perhaps by pure luck. Searching for the source and looked up . . .

The first two missiles struck the first sloop, one impacting half a second after the other. These missiles, designed to be capable of cracking open a Scorpion Tank's reinforced titanium armour plating ripped a hole in the sloop's wooden deck like a knife through paper and penetrated into the lower levels before finally detonating.

The twin explosions simply tore the sloop apart; the ship's hull was simply blown free from the rest of the ship. Above on the deck, the sloop's crew barely had time to scream before they died, ether killed instantly by the explosion or torn to shreds by the hundreds of gigantic wooden splinters.

Several seconds later, further down the river, the second flaming sloop met a similar fate.

Brecht grinned and turned his bird so that the rear end was facing the vast majority of the hostile sloops. The ODST manning the machine turret let it rip, sending dozens of rounds towards the hostile ships. The other pilots picked up on his idea and manoeuvred their Pelican's, giving the man mounting the turret on each dropship a perfect shot. They added their deadly storm to the mix, raising the amount of firepower to hundreds.

Down below death was sentenced like a disease as dozens of soldiers and sailors were torn to pieces. Holes were torn in the deck, armour was shredded, splinters of wood cut into flesh and screams of fear and pain ran through the air like a song. Some in an attempt to escape the carnage jumped overboard, abandoning their comrades to a quick but painful death. One soldier managed to reach a loaded ballistae that had been forgotten and returned fire, sending a flaming javelin at the nearest Pelican. A second later, single stray round tore off his head. It was a skilful shot, just at the end of the siege weapon's range However the extended javelin merely bounced off the reinforced glass of the cockpit, the only effect being a severe crack in the window and a temporally surprised pilot.

XXXXX

Roran tensed as one of the beings approached him, its weapon lowered as a sign of peace. Roran was simply amazed at their effectiveness of their weapons, however they worked. The sound of the fighting onboard seemed to have dimmed as if the black armoured being and himself were the only ones for miles around.

The young villager was shocked beyond belief when it removed its helmet, revealing a face with light blue eyes and short black hair. Roran was to be put simply shocked. They were human like him. The man looked at him for a moment as if trying to determine what to make of him before smiling and offering a hand. Roran hesitated for a moment before taking it with his free hand, allowing the older man to hoist him to his feet.

"My name is Alex Sanders. What's yours?"

Roran, his throat still extremely sore could only managed to cough out his name. "Roran."

Alex nodded his head, "okay then what's the condition of your ship and crew?"

Roran shrugged, "bad. Most of us are too injured to fight. At least fifteen of us are dead and we're badly outnumbered. The ship's mostly intact and the women and children below are unharmed."

"You have children on board?" Asked Sanders. This would make things harder for them.

"Yes the Empire attacked our village without warning or proper reason. We fought back and when our situation became too dire we fled our homes. We were going down south in this ship to defect to the Varden."

Sanders nodded, assuming that the 'Varden' were some sort of fraction who opposed the one that had attacked them, "alright we can ask questions later. Let's concentrate on protecting these children all right?"

Roran was surprised. This Alex Sanders was clearly a military man and he didn't waste any time at all during a battle. Both men joined back in, even though it was mostly already finished.

As the battle progressed, it was clear that Empire's naval fleet was being defeated. First Roran, Sanders and their men stopped the attack and killed all of the attackers, leaving dozens of corpses lying on the deck. Now they were taking the attack to the enemy.

Sanders and his team quickly lined up against the Dragon Wings bow, their guns at the ready. On Sanders orders they opened fire, adding more carnage to the sloops below. Roran and a few villagers that included Horst, Delwin, Loring and Morn watched with amazement, stunned and yet horrified at the level of destruction they caused.

Down below the decks were mostly completely deprived of living begins. Body parts and bullet holes decorated the deck everywhere like a mass slaughter of sheep. The few remaining soldiers and sailors were ether already dying or were a few moments away from being hit.

Only one sloop remained completely untouched; the one carrying the three magicians.

XXXXX

Stay tuned for chapter three of this story. Remember reviews and comments help me write faster and to give your advice for my Sonic/Harry Potter story. If you are not interested in this then pass the message alone to another Fanfic writer who might like to give their advice. Again I'll make sure you're mentioned even if I don't use your idea.

Next chapter: The Battle of The Jiet River and first contact is made. Galbatorix learns of these new arrivals and starts planning.

I Am The Bird Of Hermes signing off.


	3. Midnight

**READ THIS FIRST **

Oops I'm back and as promised here is chapter three of my story of Contact: Alagaesia the rewrite. This chapter was a total bitch to write had to listen to all the inspirational music I could think of to keep me going on this. Firstly, I want to say thanks for the reviews I have received for this story even if they were negative thank you very much. **Also on a side note, if you say you like my story in a review can you please be more specific concerning what it was you liked about my story. This way I'll know what I can keep in the story and try to edit what isn't liked.** Don't forget I take comments into account and I might use them, giving credit to those who suggested it even if I don't use it.

Side note: Also Jerome was actually under a spell that froze his limbs and prevented him from moving and then the spellcaster TRIED to invade his mind with only limited success. I can see how people would have gotten mixed up. Also after this chapter I'm taking a small break so I can write the first chapter of my Harry Potter/Sonic the Hedgehog fic. I promise it won't be very long since the holidays have begun here in Australia.

To Vuk in response to his or her review I say "you were almost right."

To the Lobsters Claw its gonna be a bloodbath at the Burning Plains

Also I'm going to edit the spelling mistakes and grammar stuff before I post chapter four.

I don't own Halo or Inheritance Cycle blah, blah, blah.

Alright on with the story. . .

XXXXX

The Dragon Wing, the Jiet River

Only one sloop remained completely untouched; the one carrying the three magicians.

Sanders frowned as he took in the last of the remaining ships. It was completely untouched due to its lack of participation in the battle. Even though it was positioned roughly three hundred metres to the north the ODST could still notice the lack of activity onboard which puzzled him. In Sanders mind this told him that the sloop carried key personal onboard whose safety was believed to be vital enough to forgo an eighth of their overall fighting force.

Sanders remembered Cutter's orders to try and gather as much Intel as possible. Rescuing these fugitives was a very great start but an entire ship full of commanding personal would be a bloody gold mine for them. Also, he himself wanted to know as much about their new opponents as possible. Intel would allow the UNSC to fight their new enemies' effectively while keeping their casualties to a bare minimum.

Sanders then opened a COM link with the pilots of the three Pelicans that were hovering nearby.

"All birds this is Captain Sanders. I want suppressing fire on that sloop. Keep their casualties to a minimum I want some prisoners intact. Have fun."

"Understood sir, we'll light up the party for you."

Alpha 917 took the lead, followed closely behind by Bravo 723 and Alpha 475. The three Pelicans reached their target in a matter of seconds and unleashed hell disguised as a hail of deadly slugs at the sloop with their autocannons. Quickly, the sounds of gunfire and screams resumed.

Sanders turned his attention the events occurring onboard the Dragon Wing itself. . .

His squad of ODSTs were keeping to themselves mostly, occasionally sneaking glances at the villagers. The crew on the other hand were ether busy attending to their wounded and dead or staring at their 'rescuers' with expressions that seemed to be caught between thankfulness and fear.

Roran soon approached him, followed by two men whom were at least several decades older. They introduced themselves as Jeod, the one who had helped Roran steal their vessel and Uthar, the captain of the Dragon Wing. Roran seemed willing to trust them which convinced Jeod. The aging captain, finding himself outnumbered agreed as well to co-operate with their new friends

XXXXX

The magician known Gelid who had been stationed onboard the sloop was fuming with rage. Barely a minute ago a sailor bumped into him accidently while rushing past. Gelid had latched his conscious onto the man's mind and after gaining access to his thoughts, forced the man to kill himself via drowning.

Now he was ready to throw a tantrum as another of those metal craft flew overhead and nor for the first time peppered the deck with their weaponry. Several soldiers standing nearby were transformed into pillars of flesh and bone, splattering Gelid with their blood. Across the deck, holes, fires and bodies lay everywhere. Many other surviving crew members had found cover behind whatever they could find. They fought back as best as they could by taking turns standing from their cover to shoot arrows or throw spears at their new enemies; their projectiles ether missing or bouncing off the metal ship's surfaces. What had become of the other two spellcasters was unknown to Gelid, but since he couldn't locate their minds he assumed that they were dead.

'Galbatorix will have my head when word of this failure gets out!' the spellcaster thought, wincing as he heard what sounded like rumbling thunder. A second later, the mast split in two in a shower of wooden splinters. The top half collapsed on top of the deck before mostly submerging in the water below. Another two men simply screamed as they were crushed into the deck by the falling beam, their remains shoved through the deck and into the hull.

Gelid cursed. He stood, ignoring the shouts from the crew. His attention was entirely fixed on the nearest of the metal craft, his arm rising in its general direction. Gelid allowed his magic to surround his mind as he pumped as much of his energy as he could into the following spell.

"Thrysta Vindr!"

The spell worked. Directly in front of the dropship a massive explosion formed out of nowhere as if from thin air. The sheer force of the air bomb pressed against the Pelican's metal surface, shaking it back and forth. Finally the final part of the spell kicked in, punting the Pelican out of control like a leaf caught in a massive tornado.

Geild winced as he felt the severe decrease in his strength take effect. 'Damn it!'

XXXXX

Pelican Alpha 197

Flight Officer Stanza cursed as he saw Bravo 723 spin out of control, its cockpit scrunched like a soft drink can. Its engines whined in protest like a dying animal just before it crashed into the water. Water sprayed as its normally calm surface was broken, partially swallowing the Pelican whole. Momentum and the dropship's still active engines came into effect, dragging it through the water until it crashed into the riverbank at over sixty miles an hour. The dip tore off a clump of earth, showering the front half of the Pelican in a shower of sand and dirt.

As this was happening Alpha 475 was moving closer to the hostile sloop to disengage its squad of ODSTs, its engines whining as the Pelicans' altitude began to fall.

A sudden screech caught Stanza's attention. He turned to look straight ahead . . .

Only to see the second Lethrblaka obstructing his vision, its size rapidly growing as it got closer . . .

In a sight that almost everyone on the Dragon Wing didn't miss, the Lethrblaka actually rammed the UNSC dropship, knocking it back several metres before Stanza fired the thrusters to counter the attack. Still Alpha 197 slowly span in a circle, the speed lowering as it slowly descended. Snarling, the attacker used the muscles in its back legs to gain a grip of the Pelican's left side. The Lethrbacka then continued its assault, pecking at the glass cockpit while its sharpened talons racked the Pelican, leaving shallow scratches in its metal structure.

XXXXX

The Dragon Wing

Roran felt anger creep into his mind and he let it consume him as he watched the airborne fight take place.

Overwhelmed by the urge to do something he turned his attention away from to the others his eyes scanning the deck until they found what he had been looking for, already primed, loaded and ready to launch.

Roran ran at a fast pace, ignoring the question shouts of Jeod and Uthar.

XXXXX

Inside the cockpit, Stanza cursed, grappling with the controls with one hand while he reached for his sidearm with his right. Besides him, Welland shouted in panic as the massive beak penetrated the window, showering his body with glass. Both of them winced as they felt the broken glass cut their faces in various places.

The Lethrbacka screeched again, sending Stanza and Welland into shouts of agony as the creature's ear piercing screams threatened to burst their ear drums. Stanza finally located his pistol and shot the thing's head. At the angle his pistol was positioned as well as that of the Lethrbacka's it was ensured that the wound wasn't fatal but that didn't mean it was nothing to worry about. Several chunks of its cheek were blasted away from the rest of its face, showering the Lethrbacka and both pilots in its blue blood, exposing the muscles in its jaw. Stanza sputtered as he got a mouthful of the stuff, the gun slipping from his fingers.

The Lethrbacka hissed, its tongue dancing in its mouth like a live snake. Its thrust its beak into the cockpit and was rewarded with a cry of pain. Its beak punctured Welland in the shoulder, impaling the man to the opposite side of his seat which he was violently thrown out of. Gripping the metal surface of the dropship, the Lethrbacka withdrew its beak. Welland screamed as the flesh in his shoulder was further torn by the sharp weapon.

The Lethrbacka struck again, its head partially into the cockpit as it did. Welland eyes widened as his eyes tracked the beak rushing down to meet him. His eyes followed it until his eyes had to cross to keep it in sight.

Then his screams of pain stopped.

"Oh fuck!" Stanza swore angrily as his friend's corpse slid down to the floor of the cockpit to where it lay there on the floor unmoving, dark ruby red blood pooling around the body. The Lethrbacka turned its beak to face him as it prepared to strike again . . .

Stanza closed his eyes and waited to die.

The creature suddenly cried and withdrew, shaking Stanza out of his frozen stance. Confused, he watched as the Lethrbacka flew away upstream, a five foot tall javelin imbedded in its flank. It continued to gain distance from the Pelican, trying to retreat from the battle.

Like Stanza was going to let that happen.

He quickly brought control back to his bird. Stanza then shoved the glass away and grabbed the controls for the surface to ground missiles. Stanza gave a dark smirk as he fired. The two missiles raced after the Lethrbacka, catching up to it before it had even gone fifteen metres.

XXXXX

Roran and Sanders winced in disgust as the two missiles impacted at exactly the same time. The wards placed around it to protect it from harm didn't even last a second against them, the Lethrbacka was simply consumed in a ball of fire, outlined in a shower of flesh and blood. Sanders was the one who first came back to his senses, communicating with Alpha 197 to get a status report. After hearing Stanza, the ODST ordered him to land on the sand bank to help any survivors from the crash.

Roran meanwhile felt something akin to relief as if a great lift had been taken off of his shoulder blades. While the Ra'zac were still alive, their mounts were dead. His revenge was half complete even though it wasn't by his hand and that satisfied him for now.

'Katrina.'

XXXXX

Gelid's gasped as he struggled to stay awake, grasping the wall for support. His vision darkened as did his hearing, dimming out the entire world around him. The spell had drained him of nearly all of his reserves, leaving him just enough strength for him to stay conscious. Still he saw the second Lethrbacka's demise and he silently swore under his breath. The ship it had attempted to destroy was floating fifty metes down the stream, hovering twenty metres above the water. Gelid was also just barely able to notice the other remaining craft approaching their position, its back compartment opened in preparation to deliver a squad of troopers to the deck of their ship.

Gelid felt his earlier rage at his humiliation diminish as another stronger emotion took its place.

'Fear', Gelid realised, his eyes widening as he processed this. 'I am afraid and so are they.'

Gelid eyes turned to the remaining crew, all of them just as afraid as he was. Some were cowering underneath whatever cover they could find while others had come to the same realisation that Gelid had and were distributing weapons to preparation to repel the attack, despite their emotions. Their numbers totalled around thirty, not including the ones who had let their feelings get the best of them who equalled under a dozen.

Gelid made a mental note to make the coward's crucifixions as long and as painful as possible if they ever managed to get out of this bloody mess.

XXXXX

Pelican Alpha 475

Gunnery Sergeant Ryan Pillia was surprisingly calm as he made a final check to his MA5B, flicking off the safety of the assault rifle. Nine other ODSTs whom he was in charge of were ready as well, checking their weapons or something that related to the task at hand. Of course, compared to what the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers usually did during missions this was just a walk in the park in comparison. Boarding hostile ships was something they had practiced hundreds of times before in relation to the Wet Navy back home on Earth just in case of the event that the United Rebel Front or some other militia organisation got their hands on one.

He didn't mention the Covenant because the UNSC doubted they would ever want to keep something that had come from humans. Well except for their skulls perhaps.

In a way the technological advantages they had over this medieval sword wielding people was perhaps similar in a way to the advantage that the Covenant over the UNSC. This was emphasised as he heard several thumps coming off of the Pelican's hull, indicating that the attackers turned defenders were still trying to drive off the dropship with their arrows. Shouts of alarm from outside could also be heard as they got closer to the ship. Pillia mentally grinned.

It was time to show these wankers what happened when you messed with the ODSTs.

"Remember, try to take prisoners if the chance arises. Stay together and we'll kick these bastards from their perch."

Pillia couldn't help but feel proud of his squad as they nodded to show that they understood his instructions. He trusted them with his life and they in return with theirs. They all knew each other well and were confident that their experience plus their training and dedication would allow them to prevail against any overwhelming odds.

Down on the ship, the thirty odd number of men, comprised of soldiers, sailors and senior officers all waited for the hostile boarders to arrive. They were all positioned in a single group that was thin but wide enough reach the width of the sloop three times. They were all scared and it showed in their faces as well as the stance in which they held their weapons. Ten men at the front carried pikes while those behind them were armed with deadly looking broadswords, crossbows and hatchets.

Just as the leading officer was about to give more orders a shout was heard over the whine of the Pelican's loud engines.

"Flashbangs out!"

Two dark green, oval shaped orbs small enough to fit into a pocket hit the deck with a clang as metal clanged over wood. Both continued to roll until they hit the soldiers feet where they lay innocently. Some soldiers looked at the two devices in confusion, not sure what to make of them while other's common sense propelled them to get as far away as poss-.

The Flashbangs or known otherwise as Stun Grenades detonated.

Unlike Fragmentation Grenades, these grenades are not intended for lethal use. Flashbangs used special chemical reactions to produce an extremely bright flash of light and a very loud concussion blast when deployed, stunning targets, but doing very little physical damage to them.

The men closest to the two blasts screamed in pain as they their senses erupted in pain, eyes scrunched from the powerful flash or light or blood dripping from their ruined ear drums because of the deafening noise. They were practically helpless as the next part of the attack began to commence.

"Go! Go! Go!"

The gunfire was heard by those whose ears were still working as the ODSTs stormed the deck, firing into those who were attempting to resist capture. One man stumbled back, firing a crossbow at the nearest enemy. The ODST simply ducked her head to the left at the last second and pelted the soldier with her Submachine Gun, bullets tearing into his armour like a knife through wet paper. The ODSTs continued towards the resisting soldier's position, ignoring the wounded and surrendering ones lying at their feet.

Pillia himself led at the front, firing at those whom attempted to fight back, the smell of blood, smoke and gunpowder clogging his nostrils despite the presence of his helmet. One soldier lay on the deck before him, hands clamped over his ruined ears. Pillia simply stocked the man on the back of the neck with his rifle, knocking the man unconscious. Another soldier however was much more capable of defending himself, his angry eyes locking onto Pillia. With his face covered in dirt and dried blood, the soldier rushed the ODST welding a sword and shield in his hands, the sword already raised to strike.

Since his rifle was facing a different direction, Pillia knew that he wouldn't be able to swing it around to bear in time. Training kicking in like instinct, Pillia allowed the man to reach him. Dropping his shield, the soldier grabbed his rifle with one hand while swinging his sword down towards Pillia's head with his right.

Pillia then shifted his feet and grabbed the soldier's wrist, intercepting the blow. Before the man could react the ODST brutally headbutted him, snapping his noise with a loud crack. As blood began to pour down his mouth, the soldier gasped as Pillia threw his feet out from under him, sending him crashing to deck.

Swinging his arm back, the ODST with no emotion ruthlessly shot the man three times in the fact with his Submachine Gun.

Other soldiers and sailors who were still refusing surrender were dropping like flies as the other ODSTs engaged them in Close Quarter Combat. Each ODST was handling a single opponent if not two with complete ease, using only their knives and their limbs. Several bleeding corpses lay at their feet, ether dead from a knife or a fist.

The ODSTs were extremely calm and collected as they fought, clashing with the wild and unorganised brawling of their opponents. Their moves were growing more despite each second passed by. Sooner or later, they would all fall.

Pillia was about to aid another Helljumper when another opponent appeared from below deck and challenged him. This one was at least fifty, bald with a trimmed beard and ropes that covered his body. The man screamed in pure rage and charged him, bearing a wicked dagger that gleamed. . .

Pillia simply drew his magnum and shot out both of his kneecaps.

The man collapsed to the floor, screaming before the ODST kicked him in the head, silencing the noise.

The ODST turned and saw that the skirmish was over. They were in complete control of the ship. Dozens of corpses decorated the deck while his men shoved their comrades whose numbers equalled fourteen into a corner where they were searched, restrained and stripped of their weapons by several troopers. Pillia then radioed Sanders.

"Captain Sanders this is Sergeant Pillia. The ship is secure and we have POWs."

"Good job Sergeant." Sander's voice produced from his COM, slightly grainy due to the quality. "Make grab the prisoners, any important intel and then evac in five. Clean ups going to be here in twenty."

The line went quiet. Sighing, Pillia helped his team preparing for their departure. Pillia and a few others spent the next few minutes planted several times C4 charges below deck, positioned so that the water would come and flood it. They also searched the decks for any written intelligence they could find. Any written information they found was shoved into their backpacks.

Finally the ten ODSTs and their prisoners were standing on the deck waiting for evac. Pillia had been throwing away a dagger belonging to a soldier that had been overlooked during the first search when one he heard one of his men whisper to another ODST.

"This tour really does suck man."

"No shit bro."

Pillia found that he couldn't disagree with them.

XXXXX

As it turned out most of the personal that had been aboard Pelican Bravo 723 were alive. The two pilots had died as well as an ODST. Most of the others had suffered only bruises and broken bones which would be fixed back up back on the Spirit of Fire in no time.

Sanders was quiet as he turned his attention to watch the villagers obey the instructions given to them by Roran whether they were to help with the injured or check on the passengers downstairs.

Sanders had decided that despite his age the one called Roran was the unofficial leader amongst the group. The ODST could simply tell by way the other villagers followed his orders without questioning him, meaning that they also trusted and respected him and his motives deeply.

Their faith in Roran reminded Sanders of commanding officers in the UNSC who had proved themselves in the eyes of their men. Clearly the young man had shown himself to be worthy in their eyes. For one reason or another anyway.

Sanders decided it was time to make official contact so he stepped forward, flanked several other helmetless ODSTs. Roran noticed their allies' movements so he stepped forward to meet them, also followed by Uthar, Jeod and a dozen other armed villagers.

The two sides observed each other like two packs of dogs sizing each other up. Eventually Horst stepped forward, nervousness shown on his face despite his massive height.

"You have our thanks stranger for saving our lives. Myself and all of us are in your dept." The others showed their agreement with him despite the alien aura that the ODSTs seemed to produce.

It was however Roran who asked the next question. "Who are you?"

"My name is Captain Sanders. On behalf of the United Nations Space Command whom my soldiers and I represent I greet you and offer your group any assistance that you require in exchange for information."

Roran however was confused. What the man was saying did not make any sense at all.

"What is this 'United Nations Space Command' that you speak of?"

Sanders looked completely unsurprised as if he had expected this question.

"Well you wouldn't. You see we don't exactly come from around here. We've only been here for a few days as a matter of fact. We actually came from an entirely different world. I can understand you would find that hard to believe but it is true."

This got a reaction out of the men. Some looked surprised, others didn't seem to believe it for even a second while a small few including Roran instantly became more wary of the ODSTs. After taking several seconds, Roran finally asked another question that got the attention of everyone;

"Why did you help us? You surely did it for a reason."

Sanders carefully considered his next words. History of two different human societies meeting for the first time often didn't go too well. He knew he had to be very careful with what he said otherwise his words might start a bloodbath.

"Yesterday a team of UNSC personal whom were scouting the area encountered a group of soldiers that served the society you call the 'Empire'. They attacked the UNSC on sight before they had a chance to talk and killed one of our troopers."

Roran nodded his head in understanding. That sounded like the Empire to him. After all they had been attacked as well.

He was about to ask another question but the Helljumper beat him to it.

"If you don't mind me asking just who exactly the 'Varden' are and where can we find them?"

XXXXX

UNSC Spirit of Fire, altitude: three thousand feet

Two hours later

Captain Cutter watched from afar alongside Jamie Smith and the Spartan Jerome as the last of the Pelican and heavy Albatross dropships landed in the Spirit of Fire's hanger bay. A dozen other UNSC ships that had recently arrived back were already in the process of unloading their contents; refugees.

Two Pelicans however had been tasked with the job of transporting the Lethrbacka's body (the one mostly intact of course) to the Spirit of Fire for study. Normally Cutter would have been startled by such a sight but after being at war against a bloodthirsty collection of alien races the Covenant for almost ten years who were determined to destroy the human race he was actually used to the sight of blue blood.

Just over three hundred men, women and children were being transported to the Spirit of Fire where they were being provided with medical attention and food. Teams of navy and marine personal were assisting their new friends to the best of their ability. Cutter had personal made sure that they did.

While three hundred was a rather large amount of people there was plenty of space since most of the crew were not station onboard the ship. Currently the Spirit of Fire had a crew that numbered roughly two thousand five hundred whereas the remaining six thousand odd personal were stationed planet side at Alpha Base.

Even if the entire crew was onboard the Spirit of Fire would have still had more than enough room for their new friends. The two point five kilometer long UNSC carrier was originally a colony ship, transporting colonists which at the maximum amount equaled eleven thousand plus the small crew as well as much needed equipment in relation to the UNSC's expansion efforts across the galaxy. More than fifty years after being constructed, it was recommissioned and refitted for military service prior to the Human Covenant War.

Cutter had just come from yet another meeting with Anders, Smith and Serina. After almost an hour of endless discussion and arguments that had involved the rather sarcastic AI being physically threatened at least thrice, everyone had agreed on the general fact that they should attempt to make contact with this rebel group that clearly did not support the Empire.

One supply that was rapidly dropping was food due to the Spirit of Fire's crew that numbered into thousands. Hopefully the Varden would be willing to assist them with that if everything went according to plan. Cutter was sure that they could give them something they desperately needed in return that wasn't a gun.

"Hey Nelson what are you doing! Argh!"

Cutter eyes widened as one of the navy servicemen assigned with assisting the injured enemy soldiers stood up, a smoking magnum in his hand. At his feet were two fellow crewmen, gunshot injuries producing from the back of their skulls.

Everyone; the crew, the villagers and even the captured soldiers were too shocked to move as they witnessed the man turn on his own comrades. Roran who was nearby with several marines gasped, his eyes widening as Nelson turned to face him, his eyes wide and unfocused as his gun pointed at the young man's general direction. His arm and legs were shaking as if he was fighting against himse-

Several bullet holes appeared in his legs as Jerome fired several rounds from his MA5B. Nelson dropped the gun and fell to the ground screaming in agony.

Four Marines quickly cuffed him, sprayed his injuries with biofoam and then shifted him off to the brig. Peace was just seconds away from being restored by Cutter and the marines when . . .

"Boetk Istalrí!"

One crewman only had a second to realise his impending death before he was consumed by flames that moved almost of their own accord, cooking his flesh and clothes. One of the prisoners, a man wearing a robe started to levitate as if by magic (if they only knew). A marine went to intercept him but paid the price when a ruby jet of bloody light sprung forth and slew the man as it blew a hole through his chest.

The robed man's face scrunched up in concentration as he continued to rise before his stomach and shoulders were ripped open by several gunshots, splattering the floor with his fluids. He dropped to the floor with a loud clang, cursing and shouting at the top of his voice. The man's yells turned to screams as he was brutally tasered before being jumped on and beaten to unconsciousness by several marines.

Cutter turned his head to face the source of the gunshots, expecting to see that Jerome or one the marines that had done it. So therefore he was extremely surprised to see Ellen standing here with a pistol in her hands, the weapon seemly appearing oversized in her small arms. Even Jerome seemed startled despite the fact that his face was hidden underneath his helmet.

Ellen ignored the looks she was receiving and walked off back to her lab, holding her gun at her side still. She was muttering words that to Cutter sounded awfully like "gotta thank that bitch Halsey in person for recommending me to be assigned to this fucking nightmare."

Cutter winced inwardly. He was in the middle of considering sending the specimen's corpse and the video feed of the incident to someone else when his train of thought was interrupted.

"Well who knew she had it in her?"

"Serina just shut up."

XXXXX

The edge of the Burning Plains

Eragon Shadeslayer winced slightly from the impact as Saphira landed. Behind him the dwarf Orik cursed loudly in his native language. The dwarf jumped from the saddle mounted on Saphira's back and greeted the ground like an old friend before standing back up.

'_I had hoped our landing would have received less attention.' _Saphira, complained, her voice filling the head of her partner. Eragon agreed with her and so to an extent did Orik.

Hundreds of men surrounded them, bickering or pointing with excitement at the sight of the Varden's heroes. The dragoness shook her head to display her displeasure at the mass attention, growling softly as she did so. Eventually several warriors serving under Nasuada succeeded in convincing the vast majority of onlookers to disperse.

Leading a group of armed warriors was the Varden's weapon's master Fredric. The giant man greeted them and asked them of their well being. Orik had then left to find the dwarves still stationed in the Varden.

After dealing with the miserable looking archers who shot at them by mistake, Eragon and Saphira immediately reported to Nasuada. Little was the dragon rider and his dragon aware of the events that had taken place during their absence amongst the Varden.

XXXXX

Urû'baen, the throne room

Galbatorix frowned as he pondered over this information that had been delivered by a pair of soldiers. They had recently both been assigned to one of the sloops that had been given the task of tracking down the fugitive villagers. Their corpses lay on the floor, killed after the Mad King had brutally mind raped them for all information they had on these unknown powerful forces that opposed him.

The two soldiers had been able to survive by clinging to some wreckage. When the other sloops ignored their shouts, they had managed to make their way back to shore. From behind several bushes they had watched the rest of the battle take place. After seeing the battle's conclusion they had fled on a pair of stolen horses just as more of the metal ships had began to appear.

The king hissed loudly like an angry snake. The only potential leverage Galbatorix could have had over Eragon and his blasted dragon was gone again, snatched from his grasp why those who had dared to interfere with his plans.

When he found them he would make sure their ashes would be crushed into the ground after they were burnt alive. He could already imagine the sound of their screams in his mind and the smell of their flesh cooking.

But for now he had more pressing matters that required his attention like how he was going to deal with this new development. If he was going to win the next time they were encountered he would need to know how to fight them. Their technology was not invincible that much he could depict. One of his magicians had been able to damage it enough to force it to crash.

These rebel sympathisers were few in number but he knew better than to judge their numbers based only on the ones that had appeared during the battle. He would capture them then strip them of the information on how their technology worked and how he could make some of his own.

Galbatorix pondered his next move for several minutes, tapping his fist against the handle of his chair as he thought hard. Finally he came to a decision concerning his next move. His frozen lips twisted upwards into a sinister smirk.

He would order his army to split off into two separate groups. The larger one would continue onwards to the Burning Plains with the ten thousand or so urgals that Galbatorix had managed to keep under his command. The second much smaller would go and search the area surrounding the Jiet River, killing or capturing anything they encountered whether it be Varden, dwarf, elf or urgal.

And he knew they would succeed. They weren't human, urgal or even Ra'zac ether and while their numbers were not as large as he would have preferred them to be he knew that they would not fail him. He had spent over fifty years breeding them, spending countless amounts of both money and time to ensure their existence and loyalty to him. No one other than him and a select few loyal to him alone knew of them. Even the shade Durza and the Ra'zac had been kept ignorant of their existence.

Speaking of the Ra'zac the deaths of the two Lethrbacka had enraged him so badly he had slain six servants before focusing his wraith on the pair of unfortunate soldiers cowering before him. Of course he had ensured the survival of their species. He had almost one hundred eggs hidden throughout the Empire while their older siblings, over twenty almost fully grown ones not including the two whose existence the Varden was aware of.

Also Durza wasn't the only shade that Galbatorix had under his command. Two new shades, each more powerful than Durza were also part of his forces that were currently heading to Surda. Another three younger less stronger shades were currently training down in the dungeons, preparing themselves to be even stronger than the Ra'zac.

The Mad King cackled madly. While the Varden were fighting for their lives this was like a game of chess to him. All the pieces were falling into place, beginning with the destruction of the Varden.

Outside the curtain, the king's black dragon Shruikan snorted, flames producing from his nostrils. He didn't like being awoken. Since he couldn't challenge the one who had enslaved him he could only wish that he would soon shut up so he could go back to sleep.

XXXXX

UNSC Spirit of Fire, altitude: four thousand feet

As the last few hours of August the fifth came to pass, Cutter could not help but feel old as he stood in the Professor's lab which thankfully was not his observation deck anymore. Ellen for the most part ignored him completely as she and her team completed the autopsy of the dead specimen that their new house guests called the 'Lethrbacka'.

Cutter remembered the headache that he had to endure when he realised that no one was available to cut open the thing but Ellen herself. Everyone else qualified who had been stationed onboard when they left for Harvest was either dead or currently working down in the medical bay.

He was here because he was concerned for Ellen's welfare. Plus Serina was capable for flying the ship to Surda on her own and he still had to wait before they could interrogate the magic user for information since they had been forced to drug him to stop him causing any more trouble.

'Magic'. Cutter shook his head in disbelief. Roran had described the strange anomies that occurred around these robed men that served the Empire as such. Cutter couldn't help but admit that he couldn't come up with any other explanation for these strange occurrences.

'Unknown energy, mind reading, levitating, manipulation of fire and forcing someone to do another's will.' Cutter went over the list of abilities that his crew had been at the receiving end of which was responsible for almost all of the deaths and casualties onboard since they had arrived here (Welland was killed by the Lethrbacka).

In the UNSC magic wasn't considered real at all, nothing but cheap pocket tricks meant to amuse people. Some people pretended to be able to use it often in the twenty first century for attention or for money or both in some cases.

Cutter however wasn't amused at all to say the least. These 'pocket tricks' had cost him two marines, two pilots, an ODST and a Pelican dropship since they had got here in under three days not counting the dozen or so personal who had suffered injuries. He was determined to do almost anything to keep any as many UNSC personal alive as possible which meant he had to learn more about this 'magic' or whatever it was called here.

That meant seeking out the Varden.

Captain Cutter had finished questioning Roran just recently. The young man had told him a tale of a time when dragon riders and dragons existed until one rider named Galbatorix had betrayed them and slew them all, then proclaimed himself king of Alagaesia, forced the other races, the elves, the dwarves and the urgals into hiding until recently when word of a new dragon rider who was Roran's cousin. Now Alagaesia was on the brink of war which Varden were preparing for which the Spirit of Fire and its crew had managed to get themselves sucked into.

On another topic, Cutter was actually rather surprised by how well the refugees and the crew were getting along. After the incident in the hanger bay, UNSC personal had directed families into rooms that were capable, kindly making conversation with each other as the rooming arrangements were decided. The villiagrs had accepted these arrangements without protest as had the remaining sailors that were loyal to their cause.

'Perhaps it is because they are human just like us' wondered Cutter as he watched a smiling, female marine barely over the age of eighteen lead two young children whom seemed to have gotten separated from their parents, the two kids following their new friend like a pair of puppies, 'or could it be that the crew knows that they themselves could easily have been the ones whom had lost their homes or even their loved ones to the Empire like we had thanks to the Covenant?'

A yelp came from around the corridor, followed quickly by loud, echoing, laughter. It sounded at least one child had attempted to climb onto the woman's back.

XXXXX

Thirty miles south of Alpha Base

Death prowled through the night like a predator.

The four men on horseback acting as scouts for the party led by Martland Redbeard was extremely tired despite their early excitement at the possible aspect of getting to recruit new allies. Martland had had them move ahead of the main group whom were currently somewhere in the forest behind them around a mile or two behind. They were armed but weren't expecting any trouble.

Little did they know that they were being hunted.

The darkness made navigating through the trees on horseback rather dangerous, increasing the chances of an accident occurring. One man held a lit torch over his head whilst he clutched the reins of his horse with his other hand, casting dark shadows over the trees.

Wind whistled as it ran through the trees like some demented banshee. One man shivered and a horse neighed in discomfort.

The moon shined brightly overhead, shimmering as it managed to provide the men with a second source of light.

The oldest of the group was calm despite the feeling that he couldn't shake off of the back of his neck. He was no stranger to cold nights-

His throat was ripped open as razor sharp claws tore through his flesh.

"Where is it?"

The man's horse screamed in fear and bolted leaving the dying man on the ground, the blood he was choking on was barely noticeable due to the darkness as several clouds hanging overhead hid the moon from sight.

"I can't see it anywhere!"

The remaining cursed as they managed to calm their steeds. Another warrior jumped down from his saddle and ran to help his comrade, a sword held in both hands shook as did his arms.

He never made it.

Something closed around the man's skull from behind. The man struggled as as it tightened, quickly applying more pressure to his skull. He couldn't hold the pain back and he screamed.

"Aaaaaaarghh!"

Finally whatever held his head chomped down, crushing the man's skull like an overripe fruit.

"Kill it! Kill it!"

The two men kicked their horses, propelling them to charge towards the where the corpse lay. The first thrust his spear into the darkness but hit nothing, cursing as he passed the body. The other warrior saw it thanks to the light produced from the torch. He shouted in horror a second before it swung forward with its weapons.

The horse screamed as its two front legs were severed, smashing its face into the darkness of the forest floor. The animal died instantly from the impact.

Its rider was not so lucky.

"No!"

The man moaned as he spat out several bloody teeth, his torch lying several metres away on the ground.

He felt something standing behind him, growling softly. He only had a second to realise his impending death before a hand punctured his leather armour and penetrated into the soft flesh beneath.

"Uuuuugghh!"

A wet snap hit his ears the moment he lost all feeling in his body below the waist. Blood splattered his back before his head was detached from his neck and shoulders.

"Oh my gods please!"

The remaining man whispered as he dismounted and grabbed the torch, holding the point of his spear outwards towards whatever was out there.

He heard a screech that wasn't human. He turned, just in time to see the oldest of the group disappearing into the darkness, screaming despite his ruined throat as he was dragged away.

"Aaaaaaarrgghhhh!"

The scream echoed out for several moments before creasing, followed by a snap and a crunch.

The lone survivor whimpered as he felt a cold chill on the back of his neck. He could just make out his own breath appearing in front of him a second before his torch went out.

For almost a minute nothing happened, nothing was heard despite soft whimpering when suddenly;

"Uuuuugghh!"

The forest was quiet once again.

Death moved on, searching for more victims, still hungry for blood.

Still wanting to feed.

XXXXX

**Read this too!**

There you have it! Remember to leave a review behind. If you want to guess what Galby's new pets are then do not hesitate to put your opinion in your review. Also I want to say thank you to the AnonymousGuest for supporting my Harry Potter/Sonic the Hedgehog story and giving me some ideas on how I should approach the story. Also if you've thought I've made the UNSC too weak will think about they've never encounter magic before. They don't know how it works or how to properly counter it. Also the Lethrbacka is a beast that I am a fan of so wasn't going to let them go down without a fight.

See you all around!

Christ its bloody windy in Sydney at the moment!

Next chapter: Preparations begin for battle and the leaders of the Varden and the UNSC meet face to face. Meanwhile to the side, friendships are formed.

Jameicreswell signing off


	4. Dawn

**Read this first **

Okay so here is chapter four of my story. Turns out I'm not really in the mood for my Sonic the Hedgehog/Harry Potter crossover at the moment. I also know I said I would edit my spelling and grammar mistakes before I uploaded this chapter but I am still in the process of doing that which hopefully will not take long. From now on I will be updating my story rarely for the next few months due to my upcoming HSC trials and HSC exams. Don't forget any ideas I appreciate a lot and I might use them in my story. Also to Vuk your predications are interesting to read thank you.

Also The Battle of the Burning Plains will be coming up soon readers (not this chapter or the next sadly). Like I promised it's going to be a pure bloodbath and the Empire will not be as helpless as most people would think and it's not because of their numbers.

I'm coming up with an idea for a new UNSC vehicle which will find itself a spot in the Battle of the Burning Plains. If you have any ideas please review me or inbox me and I might pick your idea. Of course I'll make sure that the person who came up the chosen idea is mentioned as well as everyone else's ideas even if I did not pick them.

By the way I was also very interested in reading what people thought Galby's new pets were. I was not expecting Knights or Xenomorphs that is for sure. Sadly none were correct. Alright I don't own Halo or Inheritance Cycle which I have wished many times was not true.

Now let's get on with the chapter . . .

XXXXX

Just south of Alpha Base, fifty miles south-east

The Varden soldier only had a mere second to scream in terror before a set of jaws tore into his face with savage delight. The monster hoisted the still alive man over its head. A gurgle of terror produced from the man's ruined mouth as he realised his impending death. With strength that surpassed that of an elf's or a kull's, the monster then tore the mutilated body limb from limb. More of its prey fled from before its wraith. With blood and gore covering its snout and face, it looked like a demon straight out of hell itself.

It stood at an intimidating eight feet tall, it's back was slightly hunched so that its neck was almost nonexistent. A layer of thin yet thick dark brownish fur covered its body from head to toe, hiding its skin from the air itself. A single white, curved, tampered horn produced from each side of its skull just before the temple and above the ears, pointing upwards until they ended at over a foot above its head, adding an extra amount of length to its massive height. Its short but muscular legs were double jointed like a dog, ensuring that it could outrun most prey such as horses with ease. A set of talon like claws produced from its feet, slicing through the grass and the earth whenever they moved around.

The monster's arms were extremely long, reaching just shy of its knee joints. Its forearms and hands were packed with muscle, almost to the point of ripping through its skin like they were trying to escape. Claws produced from each of the five fingers positioned on its hands. Its snout was similar to a wolves' or a dog's but slightly longer in length.

It carried no weapons or clothes for it and the others had no need for them. Their furs protected them from the cold and their teeth and their claws were better than any weapon in existence, metal or magic.

The monster hissed like an angry snake as it pounced upon a horseless enemy warrior and after struggling for a few seconds managed to clamp its jaws around its victim's throat and tore off the head from the neck and shoulders. It then spat out the head and ran after another warrior who was fleeing on a horse. It gave chase, reaching its intended target in seconds as it ran at forty miles an hour. The monster tackled the warrior off its horse and crushed its chest with its claws. It roared in savage delight as it tasted human flesh and blood.

It was long believed that their species had been rendered extinct by the Dragon Riders years ago. They had arrived in Alagaesia when the humans had. As a matter of fact, they had arrived with the humans, disguised as their prey using their many different forms to mask their scent from their food. When mankind had settled down, they too had settled down right amongst them. Tens of thousands of men, women, and children were either consumed or turned into one of them depending if they met the required conditions during the times when their species had been at the top of its prime.

The other races had known of their existence but simply did not know where to find them outside of human society. They were partially human which had made it almost impossible to tell them apart from normal ones due to the fact that they could change their shapes to match one of them, living as a part of their society amongst their many cities and villages that mankind inhabited.

Their constant preying on humans that had been rumoured to have outstripped that of the Ra'zac's had eventually caught the Riders attention. The Dragon Riders had sworn to wipe out their kind, very similar to the genocide of the Ra'zac. It had been long and brutal but the Riders had destroyed most of them, leaving the few survivors to be enslaved by their master decades later. He had raised them to listen to him and him alone using his black and twisted mind.

As for the name of their species, they were referred by the master as Hellhounds. Other names used by others were Eaters of Human Flesh, Shapeshifters of the Night and the Formally Human.

The most common and actual proper name for their species however was Wendigo.

XXXXX

Ayra winced as the Wendigo's powerful arm stabbed towards her abdomen, only for it to bounce off one of her few remaining wards. Taking advantage of the distraction, she sliced off the monster's offending arm before stabbing the end of her blade into its mouth, slicing through its flesh and into brain and bone. Ayra withdrew her blade and surveyed her surroundings; another two Wendigos she had barely managed to slay lay nearby.

The battle had been raging for at least twenty minutes and it was looking completely hopeless. Most of the warriors who had been a part of Martland's forces were missing, dying or dead. Their bodies lay everywhere, brutally torn to pieces as their armour had provided them with little to no protection at all against the monster's claws and fangs.

The company were currently scattered all over the forest, being hunted down one by one by their dark foe. Any attempts Ayra had made to establish contact with Martland or one of the Varden's spellcasters so they could rally the survivors was extremely difficult due to the mass of many minds producing emotions of panic, fear and horror, leaving her unable to properly identify anyone. She guessed that the strength of their forces had dropped below forty which was rapidly dropping several numbers every minute. Even now she could still hear the sounds of human screams and the roars of the Wendigo coming from multiple directions in the surrounding forest.

The deaths of the human soldiers struck her hard, especially the young ones whom were barley children by her people's standards. Their cold, staring eyes drove her to fight even harder than before in this battle to survive long enough in order to avenge their deaths.

Magic had proved almost completely ineffective against the Wendigo. Spells had either bounced off their skin or simply disappeared as soon as it came into contact. Trying to breach their mental defences had proved to be even more useless if that was even possible. Whenever Ayra attempted to contact their minds, she had run straight into an unprotected mind that had stunk of dried blood and a horrific darkness that unnerved her. When she had attempted to reach further in order to subdue the monstrosity's mind and bend it to her will a viscous consciousness that seemed to be made up entirely of greed, rage, sadness and a desire to feed slammed into her mind, overwhelming her senses with the horrific emotions. Once she had retreated back into her own mind had the counterattack abruptly stopped as if the Wendigo did not wish to continue the assault or was simply not capable of leaving its own mind.

At least the wards she had cast around herself were managing to hold.

During the beginning of the battle, she had managed to rally two dozen or so scattered warriors whom had followed her instructions without hesitating which surprised her even though she did not show it. Together they had managed to slay over eight Wendigos they had encountered, five of whom had been brought down by the combined effects of the Varden troops despite the fact that they were nearly blind in the darkness of the night.

However, they had suffered losses at every turn during the massacre thanks to the Wendigo's lightening fast reflexes. One warrior in particular had sacrificed himself to save her, stepping in front of her at the last possible moment only to be stabbed by a set of claws that had been aimed at a spot where her wards had failed, his blood spraying over her face. The last warrior remaining had lasted several good minutes after their numbers had become two, helping her fight off an attacker bravely before dying from a blow that had broken his neck.

Now she was alone. Her grip on her sword threatened to slip from her grasp or be crushed in her palm. Her sweating frightened her further as she had not realised just how afraid she was until then. It was only thanks to her bravery and sheer will that she had managed to not panic like some of the others had eventually. She was also tired from the energy she had been forced to use to heal over a score of slashes and bites in her flesh, although she was still covered in her own blood.

Horrid demonic snarls coming from behind informed her that two more Wendigo were approaching her.

She could almost feel their eyes glued to her back as they quickly sized her up like a piece of meat. Ayra turned, sword flashing as she saw the two monsters reaching a distance of ten metres before switching to two legs. They both jumped into the air, one half a second after the other. The moon seemed to illustrate their shapes as they hung before its presence.

Ayra's blade swung forth as they descended upon the sword's owner, claws and teeth exposed in the night. Then there was nothing but swords, claws and blood.

XXXXX

UNSC Spirit of Fire, altitude: five thousand feet

One mile north-west of the Burning Plains

James Cutter couldn't help but admire the view he had of the Jiet River from the command bridge. It sure was beautiful to say the least. The sun rising bathed the bridge in a layer of sunlight that warmed his skin and seemed to calm his heart. The sailors on station also seemed affected by the sun's rays, performing their duties more eagerly, more motivated.

It reminded Cutter of some of the amazing UNSC worlds he had seen in his long life, bringing memories back as well as sun's bright touch. Of course that was before the Covenant would invade, massacre its population and then glass the planet's surface. Growing up, he had been the sort of child who would spent ages sunbathing while sitting on hill nearby his house, doing his homework or playing with the soft grass. Allowing the sun to comfort him and lead his way.

It had been one of the few things that he had enjoyed about his childhood.

His parents were nether kind nor abusive towards their only child. They were uptight people, barely praising or scolding him for something he did that was right or wrong. Because their rare moments of producing feelings had been so hard to bring out he had mentally labelled them as machines.

Hell, even Serina of all people was more open than they ever had been to him.

Eventually he could no longer take it and upon turning twenty one enlisted and left before his parents had a chance to interfere. The aging Captain remembered how glad he had felt when he had finally managed to get away and start his life anew in the UNSC.

Speaking of the UNSC, Cutter finally managed to stop daydreaming and went over what was currently happening. He knew that they had to act as fast as possible due to the news he had received several hours ago.

Both of the drones had returned and with them had brought the footage they had taken of the northern and southern countryside. The gigantic medieval cities or fortresses for a better word that were under the control of the Empire had startled the crew, him included. Seeing medieval soldiers and magic in the flesh was one thing but seeing these massive castles were something that you didn't see amongst humanity anymore. Well at least the UNSC humanity.

Then there was Urû'baen itself.

The aerial footage had been of poor quality but Cutter had instantly spotted dozens upon dozens of catapult and ballistae siege engines positioned on the high walls of the capital city, the ancient wooden contractions ready to be used in a moment's notice. Thousands of armed soldiers patrolled the walls and the streets, harassing or forcibly conscripting peasants. Men with crossbows watched from the roofs of building structures, looking for enemy activity outside the walls or for an excuse to shoot one of the helpless people below for one reason or another. Cutter and several others watching it had seen it happen twice during the two hours of footage, much to their disgust.

Then there was the Empire's massive army of soldiers marching to The Burning Plains.

Cutter had made sure that Alpha Base was on high alert as soon as he had learned of this development. While Serina's calculations had concluded that the large movement of enemy forces would pass by seventy miles to the west of Alpha Base Cutter was not willing to take the risk and had ensured that extra security and defence precautions had carried out on his orders. Several layers of trip mines which had deprived the Spirit of Fire of over half of its ordinance had been buried outside Alpha Base's defensive perimeter in clusters packed with enough force to blow a hole in the side of a Grizzly Tank if they were triggered. Aside from mines, Cutter had transferred another two hundred and something odd UNSC Marines and Orbital Drop Shock Troopers planet side to Alpha Base, tasked with patrolling the base or guarding the three watchtowers twenty four/seven. Extra concrete barriers and lengths of razor wire had also been sent down and set up around the base.

If by some small chance the Empire did launch an attack against Alpha Base, the UNSC would sure as hell make them regret it.

Cutter knew that the Empire had intentions to destroy the Varden for Galbatorix would have not ordered his army to march several hundred miles unless he intended to wage war. His army was enormous, over one hundred and twenty thousand men strong based on Serina's count.

But Cutter knew that the sheer size of the army was in where its weakness lay.

The general idea was that the larger the army you had the longer it would take to move. Also the king would need to keep sending supply conveys for his forces which would without a doubt require them in order to keep functioning, slowing their progress down even more so.

Serina had calculated that it would take the Empire's force's at least three days to reach the Burning Plains.

That gave the UNSC three days to act.

XXXXX

An hour later, down in the Spirit of Fire's hanger bay several pilots and technicians were making the final checks to the D96-TCE Albatross heavy lift dropship and its escort of two Hornet gunships that would serve a role in establishing contact with the Varden. All under the eyes of the ones whose who would be the 'passengers.'

Cutter was there watching, dressed in the same uniform he always wore, his hat on his head and his sidearm holstered to his belt. While he was bending a few regulations, he knew that his presence would hopefully settle the Varden's curiosity should their leader want to meet him in person. Smith had been given temporary command of the ship in his absence until he returned.

Besides him was Professor Anders, the young woman again having somehow managed to persuade Cutter to bring her along as well. At least this time she didn't have a gun on her person.

Standing behind them were the three Spartans. Spartan Red Team was providing security for the mission. Jerome, Alice and Douglas were all armed with MA5Bs as well as SMGs and shotguns. The three super soldiers were almost impossible to tell apart in their identical armour that hid their faces. In a way they looked completely alien to those surrounding them.

Sergeant Nigel Miller was also coming as well. The marine wore his armour and weapons but minus the helmet. He was coming along so he could represent the Marine Corps in the meeting, being the one of the highest ranking jarheads onboard since technically the Spartans were a part of the Navy and ONI. Miller was standing in front of eleven other armed marines who would be coming as well.

Surprisingly Roran was the last member. Cutter had thought that it would be beneficial for someone who came from around here was in their company. It had taken some time, but eventually the young man had been persuaded. This way hopefully the Varden might be more willing to trust them. To make it obvious that he wasn't a part of the UNSC, Roran had changed back out of the spare uniform he had been provided and back into the clothes he had worn when on the Dragon Wing. Hanging from his belt was his hammer, ready to use at a moment's notice if need be.

The young man had spent the time he had whilst onboard the Spirit of Fire socialising with the other villagers and a few marines. He had found them surprisingly social despite their differences from him and the others. He had never gotten around to questioning their technology or history much but was planning to ask when this was over.

Cutter knew there was still a chance that attempts to talk with the rebels would go to hell like it had with the Empire so this time he had taken a few extra precautions just in case. The Spirit of Fire would constantly be monitoring their situation through carefully hidden cameras and microphones hidden in their clothes and armour (he wondered why the techs had hidden them in the first place as he doubted the Varden would know what they were). Cutter had also ordered that extra three Pelicans to be put on standby mode. If they required help, the three dropships would be with them in less than five minutes ready to assist. They could provide air support or deploy the three full squads of battle hardened marines they each carried to the ground, armed and ready to fight if things went sour.

Cutter just silently hoped that they wouldn't be needed.

XXXXX

The Varden's camp, the edge of the Burning Plains

Eragon could not help but feel a little useless to be honest as he left the tent. Saphira snorted, feeling how her rider felt through their bond. She shook her head and waited until Eragon had climbed back into the saddle mounted on her back before spreading her wings and taking off from the ground. She quickly gained altitude and began flying back to Eragon's tent.

'_You shouldn't be so down on yourself Little One.'_

Her rider frowned. _'Well how can I not be when I just spent several hours wasting time and energy trying to teach them magic?'_

The young dragon rider had just finished instructing the magicians loyal to the Varden in how to perform more complex and advanced spells than what most of them were used to in preparation for the coming battle. Most had been ones that he had mastered prior to arriving in Tronijheim while a small select few were spells that the young dragon rider had learned during his time spent in Ellesmera studying under Oromis.

The lesson had lasted for several hours without any time for any breaks or rest. As a result, Eragon and the other spellcasters had been exhausted when the session had finally come to an end.

The results were for a better word 'mixed'. He was proud to see that a few had managed to complete most of the tasks set for them even though it had taken several attempts. The others on the other hand, over two thirds of them, struggled to properly complete almost every task that Eragon had given them. Some hadn't even managed to complete a sixth of the tasks.

Eragon suddenly felt rather guilty for his snapping at his dragon.

'_Sorry Saphira.'_

'_It's alright. Something is troubling you?'_

Eragon hesitated for several moments before answering.

'_It's just that I'm . . . feeling like something is different now. Like I am dreading what is to come.'_

He however knew what was troubling him and he was concerned and he wondered if it would affect his overall performance in the coming battle. Despite his young age, Eragon had killed dozens of opponents in battle whom had threatened the wellbeing of him or Saphira, if not hundreds.

However all of these opponents had been urgals. Or a shade in Durza's case.

Never had he killed other human beings like himself before.

Well that was untrue. During his escape from Gil'ead he had been forced to kill several human guards whom had stood in his way through the use of magic. But that had been through the use of magic. He still couldn't help but feel dread at the prospect of running a sword through the flesh of his fellow man and soil the ground with their blood.

The idea troubled him deeply.

Saphira mentally frowned at the images she was seeing from her rider's mind. She sent smoothing thoughts to his mind through their bond, hoping to calm him. Eragon gasped before sighing in relief as he felt as if his troubles were suddenly just washing away like water as he sensed Saphira's comforting presence in his mind.

'_Relax Little One. You have the right to hesitate when faced with the chance to kill another. It is not cowardly to do so in the slightest. Even the greatest predators are nervous when hunting for the first time.' _

'_Thank you Saphira.'_

There was silence between them except for the flapping of Saphira's wings until . . .

Saphira roared.

Eragon cursed at the sudden noise thundered against his sensitise ears. He rubbed them, trying to ease the pain. Down below, thousands of men, women and children stopped what they were doing and started at the dragoness, wondering if something was wrong. Some even drew their weapons.

'_Saphira what is wrong?'_ Eragon asked, silently cursing using his mouth instead of his mind.

Saphira quickly slowed her speed down until in a matter of moments they just hovering in the air over a hundred feet above the ground. Saphira sent a message to Eragon, telling him where to look.

Eragon looked to the north.

The Burning Plains stood before his view, several thousand metres distanced away from the Varden's tents like a gigantic monster made of fire. To the north-west the Jiet River appeared as a curved, twisted line, mostly hidden by the few ranks of pine trees that had managed to grow there thanks to the water that the river supplied. The river from this distance resembled some sort of giant snake or serpent.

On the horizon, the sun hovered half concealed behind the black mountains and trees that were a part of the Spine where Eragon had grew up and Saphira had hatched from her egg. The sun bathed the sky in a strange but magnificent shade of dark orange as it slowly rose up to greet the beginning of a new day.

However what caught Eragon's attention thanks to his enhanced eyesight were the three dark shapes that were blocking a small section of the sun's glare. They were approaching fast, travelling at a pace that would bring them to the Varden in less than five minutes.

Eragon instantly recognised them from the memories that Nasuada had shown him and Saphira when they had arrived.

_They are coming._

The blue dragoness snarled in worry as Eragon reached out with his mind. After several moments of searching, he quickly located the Varden's second in command who quickly recognised Eragon's mind after a second of panic and allowed the rider past his barriers. After conversing with Jormundur for several more moments, Eragon broke the connection as Saphira flew downwards.

The Varden's war drums began to sound out and it instantly affected everyone present. Men ran for their weapons and armour, women scooped up their children and fled to their tents. Several moments later, one of the spellcasters stationed with Nasuada in Trianna's absence contacted him and told him to head to the north side. Following the instructions, Saphira zeroed in on her new destination, reaching it in a minute.

Saphira landed at the edge of the Varden's camp where the collection of tents decreased in size until they were none but the emptiness of the plains. They were greeted by warriors of the Varden whom were preparing themselves alongside several magicians. Their numbers totalled around thirty, ten of whom were archers wearing a less armoured version of the armour worn by the others.

The sergeant in charge greeted Eragon as he dismounted from Saphira's back. Eragon nodded in return.

'_We should be careful.' _Eragon said mentally to Saphira who listened. _'They might be here to be peaceful but we should trend with care.' _

Saphira rumbled to show her agreement, her eyes never leaving the three dots in the sky that were getting closer every moment. Her tail twitched like a cat's would before leaping on its prey.

Soon reinforcements arrived led by Jormundur and Fredric. The aging commander dismounted his horse and shouted out instructions to the warriors behind him. Over one hundred and fifty swordsmen joined numbers with those already there alongside Eragon and Saphira while roughly thirty archers took positions where the ground was higher, giving them a better sight and angle if their arrows required it.

Eragon was distracted when he heard his name being shouted and upon turning around was glad to see Orik and twelve other heavily armed dwarves running as fast as they could towards them. They took up positions in front of Saphira and beside her, staying clear of her front so she could attack if she needed to.

"Where's Nasuada?" Eragon asked Jormundur.

The Varden's second in command replied. "She's in her tent guarded by my men and four spellcasters. She will be safe from any harm if these people turn violent against us." From the expression on his face, Eragon guessed Nasuada hadn't been very happy at all with this arrangement.

"Eragon my men already know this so I'm saying this to you." Jormundur said to the young rider. "Do not attack for any reason at all unless they attack first. If they do prove to be less then friendly to us my warriors will do whatever they can to fight them but I need to know if I can rely on you."

Eragon could see the seriousness in the eyes of the man several decades older than himself and he couldn't help feel respect for him. Jormundur truly did care for those under his command and was willing to even go as far as to question a dragon and its rider where their loyalties opened his mouth to rely but Saphira beat him to it.

'_You can rely on us Jormundur. We will fight and they will burn if they dare attack.' _The blue dragoness' voice was heard by Eragon, Jormundur, Fredric, Orik and everyone else present. Some looked startled at the noise producing from inside of their heads while others who had heard of what these powerful strangers were capable of appeared much more confident after hearing Saphira's words of support.

Jormundur's frown split into a smile.

Turning his attention back to the approaching metal ships whose distance had been reduced to a little over a hundred metres, Eragon was able to notice more specific details concerning the three strange. . . things.

The one taking the lead resembled the one he had seen from the memories but on a slightly larger scale. It also appeared more bulky due the dull green shaded armour which covered its entire 'body' which was at least twice as thick its predecessor. Also its wings were shaped rather differently as well.

The other two were matching twins, having the most notable differences from the one in the memory. They were roughly two thirds of the size of the one they were escorting. They were of a slightly lighter shade of green than the lead ship and less armoured from what Eragon could see. They both carried two people in strange armour whom were sitting on the edge of each side, carrying tube shaped objects. Also the wings were again different; each ship only having two wings which were smaller and circle shaped.

All three of the ships were had several barrel shaped objects producing from several places that Eragon did not know what to call. They were weapons of some sort that was for sure that much he knew thanks to the memory he had seen but how they worked was something he could not even begin to imagine.

Soon the larger ship came to a stop and lowered down until it touched the rough ground, its back facing them. Eragon and the others were rather confused by the strange whining noise producing from the ship's body.

The other two broke off from their flight path and quickly turning and landing a short distance away, around forty metres behind first one. They both produced the same noise that the larger one made as they descended.

Even though he knew that they were capable of carrying passengers, Eragon was slightly surprised when a door attached to the larger ship that he hadn't noticed until now opened as if on its own accord.

People stepped out.

Eight of them wore one piece clothes the colour of tan and brown, their chests and stomach areas covered by their matching armour. They wore strange black boots made of a material that Eragon couldn't identify. That also wore strange helmets which clearly were not made of metal but something else. Covering their eyes were strange glasses that were coloured a clear yellow that seemed to be wrapped around their faces before stopping at their helmets. Pieces of cloth hid their mouths and noises from view.

They took up positions outside the ships, all facing the mass of Varden warriors facing them. Some noticed Saphira but didn't react other than appearing to be slightly startled for a few moments before regaining themselves. Two of them started to raise the black tube objects carried in their arms but paused to seemingly reconsider before lowering them down until the tips were pointed towards the ground.

They were no alone.

Three giants stepped out who Eragon and Saphira instantly recognised from the memory. They as well as many others tensed as these figures stepped out. They were at least seven feet tall, if not more, making them taller than most urgals. They wore plated, matching sets of bulky armour that was coloured a strange shade of green which only served to make them harder to ignore. They wore helmets that matched their armour with a shining sheet of orange hiding their faces. The joints in their armour were coloured a black material that seemed to be a sort of leather. They also carried weapons matching those carried by the ones whom had stepped out of the ship before them.

Saphira growled and sent her thoughts to Eragon.

'_Careful Eragon! Those beings reek of blood and violence! They are dangerous!" _

Eragon for once didn't understand what the dragoness was getting at. He asked her to explain further. He was surprised when she hesitated before speaking again.

'_I cannot explain it . . . they produce an odour that could only come from one who has the blood of many thousands on their hands. They have killed many, many times before and most of the blood isn't even human from what I can smell.'_

The next person came out.

He was roughly the same age as Jormundur, if not then slightly older by a few years. His skin was creased with many wrinkles. Stubble surrounded most of his chin and mouth, surrounding a small sized moustache. His hair had been black at some point in his life but was now mostly gray, either from age or stress Eragon did not know but he was leaning forwards the latter. He wore boots similar to the first soldiers that had disembarked but with a uniform coloured a dark shade of gray.

The next person who came out was a woman whom Eragon guessed was at least five years older than himself based on her appearance. She wore a pair of green pants and a red shirt from which the straps of a bag clung to. Obviously she hadn't chosen her clothes with appearance being the most concerned topic. She was rather pretty he noticed; a small nose with a few freckles surrounding her defined cheeks. Her eyes were a rich shade of brown that Eragon felt drawn towards. Her shining, black hair was tied into a bun with two small sticks poking through.

Next came four more armed guards similar to the first eight, although one of them was lacking a helmet and glasses although his mouth and nose was still hidden by a cloth like the other soldiers. He was clearly a captain of some sort from the way he issued orders to the others, minus the woman, the man and the giants.

Then Roran stepped out.

. . . . . . !

'_What in the gods name is Roran doing with them?' _Eragon mentally shouted, more to himself than to Saphira whom was almost as shocked as her rider was.

Roran's eyes found after several seconds Eragon and they were both caught staring at each other for several moments before finally Roran broke eye contact with Eragon and went to stand next to the woman.

'_I am not sure Little One but I don't think he is a hostage or a prisoner. He is not bound or restrained in any way shape or form that I can see. He is here on his own free will.'_

Eragon quickly informed Jormundur and Orik of this fact. Both men were startled by the revelation that one of these people was Eragon's cousin, their eyes widening at this. Tearing his attention from Roran, he hesitantly reached out with his mind, only to find their mental barriers rather well shielded, except for Roran who had no barriers at all.

Withdrawing, Eragon saw expressions of confusion on the faces of the other magic users present. Clearly they had tried to do the same thing with even less success than what he had had. He quickly warned them not to touch his cousin's mind. He did not want them breaching Roran's privacy.

Jormundur began making his way towards the strangers, one arm hanging loosely by his side whereas the other was a few inches away from the handle of his sword, followed by ten troops he beckoned to. Eragon asked Saphira to stay put before following the Varden's second in command at a slow pace, ready to fight with both blade and magic in order to protect the Varden.

XXXXX

Cutter carefully sized up Jormundur and Eragon as they approached. They both carried swords, but processed no other weapons that he could see although that did not mean they were not armed in some other way. Roran had informed him that it was rumoured in his village that Dragon Riders were capable of magic which meant that the young man approaching them would be a primary target to take out if things went bad.

The aging captain truly wasn't sure whether or not to believe Roran that dragons were actually real. Now he knew for sure that he did believe upon seeing a real one. Said dragon was staring at him with a mixture of curiosity and calculation that he only saw when a person was sizing up a possible threat, trying to determine how dangerous they could be. Cutter suspected that this creature was a lot smarter than what he had first thought when he saw it.

Finally the group of twelve stopped five feet away. After several tense, awkward moments, Jormundur began to speak.

"Greetings, I am Jormundur, commander of the Varden and member of the Council of Elders."

Cutter nodded and replied in kind. "Captain James Cutter, acting captain of my ship the Spirit of Fire. I greet you on behalf of the United Nations Space Command, the United Earth Government and all of her colonies."

He paused before resuming. "I truly hope that there can be peace between us and our two sides Commander."

Eragon was confused to say the least. He had never heard of the United Nations Space Command or of the United Earth Government. They were obviously the official name of the fraction that these people represented.

Clearly Jormundur was confused as well but did not let it interfere. "Why have you come to us? There must be a reason," he asked as he eyed Cutter carefully.

"To discuss with your leader the possibility of a relationship between your people and my own so that we may co-exist peacefully." Cutter explained passively. "We have no intentions of violence or sabotage against you. We just want peace."

Jormundur must have been convinced as he stared into Cutter's eyes for several moments, trying to figure him out. Eventually he relented as he asked Cutter to come with him. Cutter followed him as Jormundur led him to the Varden's camp. Jerome, Anders, Miller and Roran moved to follow them but paused when several of the Varden's soldiers moved to intercept them. Jormundur however shouted them down and they let these strangers through although he ordered twenty warriors to accompany them in order to protect their guests from anyone who might try to interfere with their progress.

'_Saphira please meet us at Nasuada's tent.' _Eragon asked as he followed after them, followed by Orik. Saphira acknowledged this and spread her wings before taking off. Soon she was nothing more than a tiny spot in the sky.

XXXXX

Ellen Anders carefully examined her surroundings as they progressed through the Varden. Their entrance had gained them quite a crowd amongst them. Hundreds of men, women and children watched on as the UNSC personal and their guards/escorts marched past them, trying to get a look at a look at these strangers whom for the most part completely ignored them.

The attention bothered her slightly. She was used to mostly being alone or in small groups for most of her life. She was not used to these large crowds at all. Ellen could feel nervous despite herself and cursed herself for her weakness. To bring her mind off of their audience she began thinking of the dragon.

The dragon had her rather curious to be honest. It appeared to be intelligent and it actually allowed the man to ride it. But that was unless it was tame. Ellen made a mental note to speak with the rider at a later date after all of this was over.

Eventually after almost they came to a pavilion several times larger than the ones she had seen so far where Saphira was waiting for them. Jormundur spoke with one of the men guarding the entrance before the man let him through. After almost two minutes of silence Jormundur remerged and beckoned to their guests. Everyone entered the tent except for their escorts who were waved away by Jormundur. Since Saphira was too large to fit inside, she merely waited outside.

Inside Nasuada was standing behind a large oak table that had been moved into the room several minutes ago by two guards. Also standing alongside her was Orrin, the king of Surda was frowning in concern as he pondered this latest development. Standing in the corner with an expression of curiosity plastered on her face was Angela. Two spellcasters stood a few paces behind their leader, ready to use magic in order to protect her just in case.

The arrivals all filled in. Nasuada eyed each and every one of them carefully, trying to spot something that suggested that these people did in fact come with any ill intentions. As she examined them, Cutter, Anders, Miller and Roran were directed into seats on one side of the table. Jerome was offered a seat but the Spartan simply shook his head and remained standing, arms behind his back.

Nasuada took a seat as did Orrin. Jormundur, Orik and Eragon also took seats besides them. For several moments the two sides eyed each other carefully before Nasuada began speaking.

"My name is Nasuada and I am the leader of the Varden. I welcome you here and I hope that there can be alliance between us. This is King Orrin of Surda," gesturing to the man then to Orik. "This is Orik, representative of our dwarf allies and this is Eragon Shadeslayer."

Roran glared at his cousin who winced at the look he was getting from him.

Cutter nodded his head. Roran had also mentioned the existence of elves, dwarves and the kingdom of Surda whom all resisted the King. It was now time to explain themselves and their origins.

"I am James Cutter. These are Ellen Anders, Nigel Miller, Roran and Jerome."

The Varden leader frowned. Most of these names were foreign ones that she had never heard before. This strengthened her belief that these people were not from anywhere in Alagaesia. However the name Roran was familiar to her. . .

Her eyes took in Roran and then looked at Eragon to compare their appearances from each other. They were strikingly similar to one another and this just confirmed her suspicions.

"You are Eragon's cousin aren't you?" Nasuada asked Roran who was briefly startled at her accusation. He hesitated before responding. "Yes ma'am I am."

"Why are you with them?" she asked, eyeing the man curiously.

Roran shrugged before telling his story, his voice altered by the feelings of sadness, revenge and hate that he felt. "My village came under attack by the Empire whom was searching for me because of my connection to Eragon. The king sent thirty soldiers and the Ra'zac to capture me."

Eragon growled in anger at the mention of the Ra'zac. His fists shook in fear as he imagined what horrors what they had committed.

"We fought back when they killed all who stood in their way. We fought for several days. After they kidnapped someone important to me we had no choice but to leave as the Ra'zac had called for more soldiers. I led everyone through the Spine and managed to make it to Terim. We enlisted the help several others and managed to hijack a ship and set sail for Surda.

The Empire however sent sloops after us to stop our ship from reaching Surda. Eventually we were cornered by the sloops and the Lethrbacka. The UNSC rescued us and destroyed the seven ships as well as the two Lethrbacka. They offered us refuge onboard their ship the Spirit of Fire. When they were preparing to meet with you they asked me to come along and I accepted."

There were several different expressions on their faces after hearing of this tale. Saphira who was listening from outside rumbled angrily, Eragon looked outraged, Jormundur and Orrin both looked sympathetic at the man's plight, Orik growled and Nasuada shook her head sadly.

"Thank you Roran," Nasuada said, looking at the man with a look that resembled a mixture of pity as well as respect. She then looked at Cutter. "If you can excuse my curiosity Captain I cannot help but wonder about the origins of where you came from."

"Of course. Now I know you might find this hard to believe but I can assure that it is the truth. We come from a different world entirely ma'am," explained Cutter.

This got a reaction out of everyone like it had with Roran and the villagers but on a much larger scale. Orik, Orrin and Eragon rose to their feet and began shouting questions at the exact same time. Angela nodded and smiled as if she had suspected something like this while Nasuada and Jormundur shouted for silence. After several seconds, silence was restored and Cutter continued his story.

"We come from a planet called 'Earth'. As you might have guessed by now many things are different from our home in comparison to yours. There are no dwarves, no elves, no urgals, no dragons, no Ra'zac or magic at all for a matter of fact."

"So the only intelligent species on your planet were humans correct?" asked Orrin, starting to imagine a world where only humans existed. "And magic was also non-existent?" The others were also especially startled by this revelation.

"Correct. For many thousands of years, Earth was a battleground between many different human kingdoms that fought each other for various reasons such as hatred towards the other, for resources or for religion. As a result many millions of people died from war, disease and famine. There was always at least one rebellion, civil war or skirmish going on at a time due to the fact that they were that common and recurring."

Everyone looked horrified as they imagined that many people dying in the way in which Cutter described. Eragon mentally wondered how Ayra would have reacted had she been here.

"Soon countermeasures were taken to preserve human life and to restore peace in times of conflict. This included the leaders of several countries meeting together to form the United Nations, an organisation created with the sole purpose in mind for keeping peace between other countries. The results were for the most part positive. Many more countries would soon join over the years."

Nasuada was impressed with the creativity and the purpose in which the United Nations had stood for. The others were also sharing similar thoughts.

"Soon advancements in technology allowed humanity to build ships that were capable of leaving Earth and of travelling into space. This allowed us to spread to other planets that were nearby and colonise them. Humanity's population began to grow even larger as a result, ensuring that millions of people would flock to the colonies and begin new lives there.

Soon the United Nations was renamed the United Earth Government and a military branch charged with protecting with Earth and all of her colonies as well as exploration of newly discovered worlds was created: the United Nations Space Command."

Cutter knew that the next part would be rather difficult to explain to them compared to what he had already said.

"Soon human researchers created a device. This device allowed our ships to . . . um tear a hole in space and travel through it to a different destination, allowing humanity to travel to places that would have taken hundreds of years but thanks to this process which we call 'Slipspace' allowed us to reach them in months, even weeks."

Cutter wasn't surprised at the expressions of wonder and doubt on their faces as they tried and failed to imagine such a thing existing. Then Eragon asked a question that had been secretly been buggering Nasuada and Jormundur for a while now.

"Your ship . . . the Spirit of Fire. Just how large is it?"

Cutter took a moment to remember it's actual size before answering the dragon rider's question.

"The Spirit of Fire has a length of two thousand five hundred metres and a width of eight hundred metres."

This piece of information awed the Varden as they imagined several of the UNSC ships that they had encountered so far but at over two point five kilometres large. Even Angela and Saphira showed their surprise at this revelation. Orik, being a dwarf was wondering how they managed to construct such a ship out of metal decided to question one of them later. Orrin seemed ready to question how they managed to get their ships to fly but seemed to decide against it as he was finding the story far more intriguing. Eragon was wondering if they could see it at some point.

"Slipspace allowed the UNSC to expand a much faster rate. Humanity colonised hundreds of different worlds and the population continued to rise to much larger numbers as a result of this. Things were peaceful for quite a number of years until a rebel group who called themselves the United Rebel Front sought to declare their independence from the UEG."

This set the Varden personal on edge. These URF in a way reminded them of the Varden. For instance like how this group fought against the UNSC compared to how the Varden resisted the Empire. Nasuada hoped that this would not affect the outcome of their meeting in any way, shape or form.

"The UNSC naturally tried to negotiate with the insurrectionists. The rebels however, responded with blunt refusals and lethal force. Soon war had again erupted. The rebellion was well funded and highly organised and many of their leaders were defected UNSC personal which gave the rebels an edge over us. For a number of years the UNSC fought against the URF and things weren't going so well for us when . . . an event took place. Something which the UNSC were completely unprepared for."

Eragon, Saphira, Roran, Nasuada, Jormundur, Orrin, Orik and Angela all detected something in Cutter's voice that wasn't here beforehand. Almost like he was about to recount a nightmare which both scared and terrified him to the core.

Cutter nodded to Ellen who nodded and grabbed her bag and brought out her laptop. She opened it and began typing to access the files she was after.

Seeing the curious looks that their new friends were giving, Cutter briefly explained what the laptop was and what it did. He also explained that they were about to see were a sort of moving images that captured events so they could be watched again later. This further impressed the people representing the Varden at what technology the UNSC possessed and several couldn't help but wonder what else they could do.

Ellen finished bringing up the files and used the holographic projector she had installed herself to project the images onto the side of the tent where everyone could see it clearly. Ellen then brought the first image: a picture of Harvest, promoting several people to gasp in surprise and wonder as they look in every detail of the planet. This time it was Ellen who did the talking.

"This is Harvest, an agriculture world under the control of the UNSC with a population of three hundred thousand. It was also one of the UEGs largest importers of corps. One day on February third 2525, Harvest made contact with this."

The next picture Ellen brought up was a picture that those from the UNSC recognised as a Covenant Cruiser. The differences caught Nasuada's attention as the design of this ship was clearly different from the UNSC ships that they had seen so far.

"Then shortly thereafter, the Colonial Administration Authority lost contact with Harvest. We first thought it was due to the actions of the rebels so the UNSC sent three ships, the Arabia, the Vostok and the Hercules to investigate. They arrived at Harvest and encountered the same ship. The mysterious ship then sent us this message."

With having said that, Ellen brought up an audio file and hit play. The eyes of everyone, minus those from the UNSC, widened as they listened in.

"_Your destruction is the will of the gods and we are their instrument."_

Ellen then played a video recording of what happened next. "The ship then proceeded to engage the battlegroup."

Everyone watched as in horror as the Covenant Carrier opened fire, unleashing plasma torpedos and lasers at the UNSC ships. The Arabia was destroyed almost instantly followed quickly by the Vostok several seconds later. The Hercules shook as it took severe damage to its hull. The UNSC destroyer returned fire, launching dozens of Archer missiles at the Carrier.

Not one of them reached their target.

Two thirds of the missiles were shot down by the Covenant Carrier before they had even reached halfway. More were shot down by Point Defence Lasers as they zoomed in towards their target. For a moment it looked like the few remaining missiles were going to hit until they all exploded one by one as they were shrugged off by the ship's energy shielding. More laser fire caused even more damage to the Hercules as it was struck again.

Ellen then brought down the video and began preparing the next. Whilst this was happening, Cutter turned to their audience.

"It took several weeks for the Hercules to limp back to another world Reach as it was heavily damaged. In response, the UNSC sent a fleet back to Harvest, this one several times larger. They won but at the cost of thirteen ships. For the next five years we fought against a threat we had never even heard of before for the control of Harvest."

"Who were they?" asked Orik, absolutely gobsmacked at the combat capabilities of the Covenant ship as well as the absolute brutality in which they had attacked the UNSC as were everybody else.

"The Covenant is a theocratic hegemony made up of multiple alien species. For reasons we still do not know they declared our race as an insult to the gods they worship. Any human they come across they kill whether they be soldier, man, woman or children without the slightest amount of hesitation, remorse or guilt as a part of their genocidal war against mankind."

"They . . . they've actually killed innocent people?" Eragon asked, looking horrified. The others wore similar expressions.

"Millions at least" Cutter said grimly, shaking his head sadly. Miller clenched his fists tightly as he remembered the reasons he hated the Covenant with every fibre of his being.

Eragon and Roran looked ready to be sick at the amount of people whereas the others while not as extreme were just as horrified.

Ellen brought up the next video. The feed depicted several squads of armed marines in Warthog LRVs driving down a snowy hill. They reached the bottom, wheels bouncing as they absorbed the impact from the thick ice below them. Everyone watched as they heard radio chatter amongst the soldiers as their vehicles carried them through the blinding blizzard.

"_Spirit of Fire this is Blue Six. We're joining Blue Five and are en route to the recon patrol's last known position. Six out."_

The Warthogs passed a few heavy cumbersome Scorpion Tanks whom were also heading in the same direction but a much slower pace. The camera then rapidly moved forward several hundred metres until it stopped at a large unknown structure. A second later, two unarmed marines raced out of the entrance. The man bringing up the rear fell as a bolt of plasma from an unknown source struck him in the back from behind.

"_Blue Six! Blue Six! We are under attack" _the first marine shouted as he saw his comrade die. He continued to run, only to be hit himself by a second one several seconds later. _"Gagh!"_

Eragon, Roran, Saphira, Nasuada, Orrin, Jormundur, Angela and Orik all felt something similar to dread and anticipation swell up inside of them as they watched the still alive man desperately crawl through the snow, moaning in pain. The marine turned onto his back just in time to see his attacker appear out of thin air as it deactivated its active camouflage. Everyone minus those from the UNSC gasped as they took in the Sangheili warrior's appearance: eight feet tall, with doubled jointed legs and four insect like mandibles surrounding its growling mouth. It wore navy blue night armour and in its hand it clutched an Energy Sword, already pulled back to strike. They all watched in horror as the alien stabbed the marine right through the chest, the noise of the plasma blade cauterising his flesh was drowned out by the sound of the man's screams.

"_AAAARRGH! GARRGGH!"_

Finally the soldier's screams which were clearly heard by the men and women listening with in on the COM channel finally creased. The Sangheili deactivated its blade and hoisted the human corpse off of the icy ground with one hand wrapped around the throat. Holding the body's face up to eye level to confirm if he was truly dead, the Sangheili growled in satisfaction after examining the face for several moments before tossing the body over its shoulder.

"By the gods" Orrin breathed in horror as Ellen ended the video there before putting the laptop away in her bag, having shown everything that Cutter had asked for. The others did not say anything but were just as shocked by the man's death and the alien's appearance. Said captain then resumed his story.

"My ship's mission was to investigate what the Covenant was searching for at Harvest. The investigation as well as several skirmishes with Covenant ground forces eventually led us to another UNSC planet called Arcadia which was also under siege by the Covenant. We aided with rescue and evacuation of the civilians as best as we could working alongside local UNSC forces.

However our efforts were interrupted by the kidnapping of Professor Ellen Anders whom the Covenant were interested in due to her knowledge of the artefacts we were researching. Since the risk of Ellen's knowledge falling into enemy hands would have been considered a very major breach of security, I ordered the Spirit of Fire to pursue the Covenant ship with the professor aboard as it left Arcadia."

Ellen tensed, her expression turning sour as they got to this part of the story. Eragon and several others noticed this but decided not to comment.

"The planet we arrived at whilst following the ship was nowhere in UNSC charted territory so therefore we had no idea where we were. After engaging the Covenant we discovered an entrance on the surface which upon following sealed up behind us. It was then when the Spirit of Fire reached the other end of the tunnel that we discovered that the planet was completely hollow."

"How is that possible?" asked Jormundur, the words in which the story was being described with were completely foreign to him as well as the others included, adding to their confusion and wonder. "Planets are not hollow. Everybody knows that."

"Until we found ourselves inside of a planet, we had thought the exact same thing as you." Cutter replied mildly, shaking his head in amusement.

Before the meeting had taken place, Cutter had agreed with Smith and Anders as well as several other high ranking sailors to not mention the Parasite or the Sentinels as there was a probability that mentioning their existence would frighten the Varden into making hasty decisions regarding their relationship with the UNSC.

"Our troops succeeded in returning Professor Anders to the ship unharmed. Once Anders was debriefed, we learned that the Covenant was constructing a fleet of ships through the use of ancient structures that were believed by them to have been built by their gods. What made this one different from any other Covenant fleet was that they were partially based on the design of their forerunners as well as the technology which from what we had seen well surpassed anything built by both the UNSC and the Covenant."

Everyone's eyes widened heard this. That the technology used by the UNSC and the Covenant was actually considered primitive in comparison suddenly made them feel really small indeed. Orrin's jaw actually dropped, giving him a not so intelligent appearance.

"We knew that if the Covenant got their hands on these ships then it would certainly secure humanity's destruction so we developed a plan to destroy the planet before the Covenant could make anything from it. The plan involved inserting our Slipspace drive inside of the planet and detonating it, during which the resulting chain reaction would completely obliterate it from existence. After many difficult skirmishes with the Covenant, UNSC troops managed to place the drive in position. The planet was destroyed and the Spirit of Fire barely managed to escape prior to the drive's detonation."

Everyone showed a mixture of awe and amazement at the story. Eragon was secretly thinking that it actually made the ones told by Brom seem boring in comparison.

"However our victory was not without a heavy cost. Several hundred combat personal were all declared Killed In Action or Missing In Action as a result afterwards. In addition, we couldn't return back to the UNSC."

"How is that so? Couldn't you just travel back?" Orik asked, his eyebrows moving as he frowned in confusion.

"We were basically stranded in space. Our Slipspace drive was gone, leaving us with no way back to Arcadia. Also we had blindly followed the Covenant to unexplored space meaning that we had no idea where we were unfortunately. On top of that even if we had known it wouldn't have helped without the drive, it would have taken us years. So I ordered my crew to their cyro pods which places a person into a deep sleep and preserves their age as well while I set the Spirit of Fire on a course into random space, hoping that we would come across a UNSC world or colony.

Twenty eight years later my crew and I were woken up when the electronic deep space sensors detected a planet nearby. Your planet. So I made the decision to go there with the intentions in mind being to resupply, explore and conduct repairs to the ship. Then we met the Empire and the rest you know." Cutter finished as he leaned back in his seat to see the various reactions of the Varden leadership.

Nasuada and everybody else didn't say anything for several moments. They all simply stared at them all, him in particular with an expression that mirrored amazement, doubt, conflict, respect and pity.

Finally the silence was broken surprisingly by Angela whom had not said a work since the meeting had started. She stepped forward and spoke directly to Cutter, a small expression of her face.

"An interesting tale Captain that is for sure. Not uninteresting that is for sure. I don't expect myself to speak for everyone here but I don't doubt your account of what happened. Also I was curious as to what the current situation is concerning your war with the Covenant."

Cutter sighed, an expression of sadness coming over his face as did the faces of Anders and Miller. No one could read Jerome's expression because of his helmet, having not moved a single inch during the proceedings.

"We honestly have no idea. Even by our standards a lot can happen in twenty eight years. Our knowledge of what has transpired in our absence is practically zero. We hope that the war is over and that the Covenant has been disbanded or destroyed as many of our relatives and loved ones were still alive the last time we ever saw them. However, I haven't discounted the chances of the possibility that despite our efforts the Covenant did manage to destroy Earth and all of her colonies. If this is the case, then there is the real possibility that I, my crew and my ship is all that remains of the United Nations Space Command."

Nasuada give him a look of pity whilst Eragon could not even begin to imagine how they felt. Not knowing if your family was alive or not. Hoping that after twenty eight years they were still alive, despite the small chances. Not knowing the fate of your world must have been excruciatingly painful. Eragon imagined the same thing happening to him and Saphira and he shivered at the thought.

"Moving on from our history ma'am," said Cutter to Nasuada. "I believe that we should discuss what you intend to do concerning the army that is approaching your position."

Nasuada nodded in understanding before replying grimly. "Of course Captain. We are aware of the movements of the imperial force. My troops will be outnumbered several times over and the odds aren't in our favour." Nasuada knew that she could have lied, said that the number of her forces were closer to that of the Empire's than what they actually were but she decided against this. Being truthful was the best approach.

"Not if you had our support." Cutter cleverly countered. Now was time for negotiating.

Nasuada's eyes widened. The others also shared similar expressions as well. "You would willingly help us in our war against the Empire? What do you have to gain from getting involved?"

"Everything as a matter of fact ma'am. We know next to nothing about your magic, politics or customs and I don't see us surviving long here without allies. My crew also need supplies and other such resources. Also the Empire doesn't know it yet but they declared war on us when their soldiers killed our troops when we tried to talk to them. Our situation is dire as is ours. We both have an enemy in common so we both have similar goals."

Everyone was surprised by Cutter's short speech. Nasuada hadn't been expecting this that was for sure. Willing to co-exist peacefully alongside them yes but for them to be coming with intentions to join the Varden in their war no. Not without hours of bargaining and discussing at least.

Eventually Nasuada made up her mind. "We will see what we can do about your needs. If I may inquire, what exactly did you want in return and what can you promise us?"

"We require large amounts of water and food, enough weekly to feed my crew whose numbers equal around eight thousand. We also need large quantities of raw materials such as steel, tin, bronze and any other kinds of metal that you have access to in order to conduct several repairs to the Spirit of Fire's outer hull. I would also like to ask you to allow several of our researcher's access to what records you possess concerning the history of Alagaesia and the politics and customs of the Empire and the Varden as well. Lastly, I want to know everything there is to know about magic: how can it be used, what are the capabilities of magic, how we can defend ourselves from it the works.

In return and I can give you my word on this, the total and utter advantage that will allow you to win this war. We can transport our troops as well as yours to any location you desire in a matter of hours. We can bombard enemy forces and structures from orbit whenever the situation requires it and they won't be able to do anything about it. Provide medical aid to any of your injured as well as captured prisoners of war. Constantly scout out the Empire from the sky to watch the movements of the king's forces. Provide your forces with any support whether it be from the ground or sky. We can infiltrate enemy lines to conduct recon, organise the capture or assassination of key Imperial personal or sabotage enemy supply lines through the use of ODST and Spartan Special Forces. My forces are low compared to yours and the Empire's but we make up for that several times over with the technology that we have at our disposal."

Cutter finally finished speaking and leaned against the back of his seat. In his own seat, Miller smiled as he took in the expressions of the Varden's leadership.

They were to put it simply, quite flabbergasted indeed. Jormundur leaned towards Nasuada and whispered to her, unaware that Jerome as well as the UNSC personal monitoring the listening devices could easily hear him.

"Nasuada if I may interject, their promises are the worth the price, but I doubt that we actually have access to that amount of resources at our disposal."

"I might be able to help with that. Surda should be able to provide what they require in return for their help." Orrin offered helpfully.

Nasuada nodded her thanks to Orrin and then spoke to Cutter, "we agree to your terms Captain."

XXXXX

Alright hope you like the chapter. Keep an eye out for the next one which will be quite a while.

Chapter five: the UNSC and the Varden began planning for the coming battle. Both sides learn some interesting things about the other. The UNSC stages a rescue mission and unknown to them, a third fraction enters the game. And beneath the surface, something awakens.

Remember reviews help me write a lot. Give me your opinion mate. Didn't expect this chapter to be so large that is for sure. Jamiecreswell signing off.

XXXXX

_Spirit of Fire's known inventory (Sent to Captain James Cutter upon the Captain's request via Artificial Intelligence, designation: Serina)_

_Thirty two Warthogs (six inoperable pending repairs, two deemed damaged beyond repair and scrapped for parts)_

_Twenty five Mongooses (two inoperable pending repairs)_

_Twelve Scorpions (one inoperable pending repairs)_

_Eleven Wolverines _

_Twelve Cobras _

_Ten Elephants (two inoperable pending repairs) _

_Seven Gremlins _

_Three Grizzlies (one inoperable pending repairs)_

_Two Rhinos _

_Twenty eight Cyclops ( five inoperable pending repairs)_

_UNKNOWN (Designation and number classified, access can only be granted by Captain James Cutter, Lieutenant Jamie Smith, Professor Ellen Anders)._

_Fifteen Pelicans (one inoperable pending repairs)_

_Two Vultures (two inoperable pending repairs)_

_Twelve Hornets_

_Eight Hawks (three inoperable pending repairs)_

_Six Wombats _

_Six Albatrosses_

_Fifteen Longsword Interceptors _

_File closed _

XXXXX


End file.
